ISLAMABAD, 15 November 2006 — President Pervez Musharraf has said he will not address the joint session of Parliament because many members are uncivilized and rowdy. “I will not address an uncivilized Parliament because we do not want to send signals abroad that the head of state is hooted by lawmakers in the Parliament,” Musharraf told a private TV channel. “Yes, it is an uncivilized Parliament and we cannot allow the president to be taunted by rowdy opposition members,” commented Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Sher Afgan echoing Musharraf’s views.
The current Parliament will soon complete its fourth year and it is the president’s constitutional obligation to address the joint session at the end of every parliamentary year.
Musharraf and Sher Afgan’s remarks evoked swift protests from the opposition. Opposition members Naheed Khan, Sherry Rehman, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, Navid Qamar, Qamaruz Zaman Kaira and Mahmud Khan Achakzai said they would submit privilege motions to the speaker. They termed the remarks of President Musharraf and his minister “derogatory.”
When the National Assembly began its session yesterday, the opposition tabled motions seeking discussion of the Khar madrasa attack that left 82 people dead, and the suicide bombing in Dargai that killed 42 troops. Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain refused to accept the opposition contention that those killed in the airstrike on the madrasa were martyrs. “They were militants, not martyrs,” he observed and said that debate on the two incidents was not possible as the issues were in the court and hence sub judice. The opposition, however, insisted that the incidents warranted urgent debate because they were issues of national security.
Later Sher Afgan told journalists the schedule for the presidential election would be announced sometime between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, 2007, and the schedule for the next general elections would be announced after that.
According to Afgan, the current Parliament will re-elect Musharraf. He said the Women’s Protection Bill would be adopted during the current session of the National Assembly. Opposition groups are trying to forge an alliance to block the passage of the women’s bill and the re-election of the president.
The Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal, a grouping of religious parties, had earlier threatened to oust Musharraf through protests, but they could not do so because differences on certain issues kept the parties at odds.
