FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The 5-day special Senate session adjourned sine die on Friday with real business of unanimously axing one of the President's Orders issued in 2001 as Chief Executive and passed a resolution to do away with the National Accountability Bureau, brainchild of the military ruler.
There was little support for President Musharraf from opposition benches by Senator Mushid Hussain and Gulshan Ara Syed who spoke in his favour during the proceeding, may be because of his uncertain future.
A visible change in the opposition attitude was that it lent support to the government in getting through legislation, the first one since they took over, repealing an Order President Musharraf issued in 2001 as CEO, suspending trade unions activities in Pakistan International Airline (PIA).
Chairman Senate Muhammad Mian Soomro was in chair throughout the sitting with 5 items listed on the Orders of the Day but only three could be taken up. One that gathered more support was unanimous demand made by the House to dismantle the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for its highhandedness.
Senator Safdar Abbasi told the House that he was manhandled few hours before by the NAB, which took away his cousin Sikandar Abbasi as he was returning from an accountability court in Rawalpindi. The Senator ordeal angered other member who saw a breach of the member and house privilege and wanted the Chair to summon the Deputy Director NAB before this august house.
Rabbani, the leader of the House initially reluctant, sensing the pressure agreed on moving the resolution which was subsequently adopted unanimously to nib the evil (NAB) in the bud. The two NAB officials were also convicted by the SC for their highhandedness in the premises of the court.
The sitting started full 45 minutes beyond schedule. One plausible reason for delay could be that it was perhaps too early for the members to attend the session at 10.00 am on Friday morning following a hectic night of political developments. Senators, being part of the parliament that is set to impeach Musharraf, might have been busy in last night planning to counter Musharraf.
Whatsoever, the case may be, one thing was visible the positive body language and activism by PML-N leaders, constantly discussing points, perhaps weighing their strength and opposition's weaknesses in the House. Certainly, the political temperature will rise further in the country in the coming weeks as was evident from the winding up speech by the leader of the House who categorically rejected the allegations of Horse trading by Mushahid Hussain.
Mushahid Hussain, a vocal supporter of beleaguered Musharraf, said he was personally against the impeachment. The reason he gave that it will nurture political instability was not impressive as Musharraf in the power was widely believed as the main source of political and economic instability. However, Mushahid said there was no change as the government was toeing Musharraf policies. Senator Kamil Ali Agha wanted a committee to probe and uncover the mystery as what was forcing the present government to continue previous policies.
Being the hard defender of Musharraf, Mushahid Hussain seemed more concerned about President's future rather than the law and order situation and dearness, although he touched upon these issues as well. Moving towards treasury benches, he said the word "fear" does not exist in their dictionary and they would fight back on Musharraf's impeachment.
However, he said that there was a need to redefine the concept of National Security as intelligence bureau was used by all the governments' for political ends. He warned that price hike and dearness, inflating on daily basis, also has the potential to destabilise the political system, asking the government to arrest the price hike. Raza Rabbani loudly and vehemently said that they have enough numbers for president impeachment and the government was not involved in any kind of horse-trading.
The impeachment result would not be different from February 18 election, confident Rabbani challenged the Senators on opposition benches while another treasury members said they have over 333 votes for President impeachment. The next, regular session, of the Senate is likely on August 25 and by then, it is expected that things would become more clearer on the issue of Musharraf's impeachment.