FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The 21st session of the National Assembly opened on Friday evening as the newly sworn in ministers jam-packed the five front rows of the treasury benches; while those who could not jump onto the bandwagon of Shaukat Aziz sat unconcerned, away from the humdrum of government-opposition crossfire.
In fact, it was not a crossfire, as the opposition members dominated the proceedings, the only exception being Faisal Saleh Hayat who retaliated to the charge by Hafiz Hussain Ahmad that the minister had prompted a raid on his house in Quetta last week.
The proceedings started 70 minutes behind schedule, after both the ruling coalition and the opposition had met in their pre-sitting consultations.
The agenda for the day was short, without the question hour slated on it because the House had been summoned in a hurry and the required notice period for it had not been given.
Yet that brief agenda remained untouched. Highlights of the proceedings included the Hafiz Hussain Ahmad-Faisal Saleh Hayat confrontation, the situation in Wana and a walkout by the Opposition minus the PPPP when the chair fixed discussion on the South Waziristan imbroglio for Monday, annoying the MMA who wanted the issue to be taken up the same evening.
Such was the confusion, partly created by Deputy Speaker Sardar Yukub Khan's incessant interference, that when the opposition had walked out, he allowed Interior Minister Sherpao to spell out the official position on the latest developments in the tribal area.
All along, while the chair was refusing the opposition to speak on Wana, the interior minister was trying to catch the Deputy Speaker's eye for permission to speak. That was indeed an interesting situation, and perhaps amusing, evoking a constant smile on the face of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who sat through almost the entire sitting.
It was the Shaukat Aziz's first regular day in the National Assembly. He also walked over to the other side of the aisle and spent some time with Makhdoom Amin Fahim. But the man sitting next to him, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, until a few days back the magnet of attention, received neither the usual thumping on entering the House nor the callers turned up to him.
At times he gave the look of a forsaken person on a forlorn island in the midst of a vast ocean. But that is politics. Now the members were flocking to Shaukat Aziz, bombarding him with earfuls of useful advice. Such was the obsequiousness exhibited by members that a minister did not hesitate sitting on floor beside the PM's chair.
The opening shot was fired by Khurshid Shah: On a point of order he congratulated the government for its first step towards eliminating unemployment-- by giving jobs to so many ministers. The deputy Speaker was not impressed and he promptly ruled out the member's greetings, as it did not constitute a point of order.
He was also firm in disallowing a number of motions on President Musharraf's recent assertion that the Constitution, as amended, permits him to hold both the offices of the president and the army chief.
The opposition members said the President's claim was violation of the Constitution and therefore breach of members' privilege, and they had come prepared to discuss it. But Sardar Yukub clubbed these motions together and fixed Monday for the discussion.
Given the insignificant items on the agenda, it remains a mystery as to why the government summoned the session in such great haste. However, one explanation being proffered by a parliamentary crystal gazer was that the House has been called into session to pass a law re-defining the "office of profit" that stands in the way of president holding the office of army chief. Article 43 says that the President shall not hold any office of profit in the service of Pakistan or occupy any other position carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services.
Under the 17th amendment, Article 41 has been amended to include a proviso "That paragraph (d) of clause (1) of Article 63 shall become operative on and from the 31st day of December, 2004". But Article 63-(1) (d) provides the escape door by saying that there can be an office "other than an office declared by law not to disqualify its holder". Simple majority in the Parliament can pass that law re-defining the "office".
The Senate shall meet next week. Hopefully, by then the Lower House would have enacted a new definition of the "office of profit".
The crystal gazer does not stop at that. According to him, once the law about the office of profit has been re-defined securing both the offices of the President and the COAS for General Pervez Musharraf, the National Assembly would be dissolved.
He adds that the fresh elections would drastically reduce the clout of the religious parties, and the next leader of opposition would be from the PPPP. Can the crystal gazer be right? May be Yes, may be No. But we must not forget that a rainbow of weird possibilities runs through our national politics. So, any thing can happen!