FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

Friday sitting of the Senate had smooth beginning but tumultuous end. As the proceedings were coming to a close opposition's Mian Raza Rabbani asked Chairman Mian Muhammadmian Soomro why his privilege motion was killed by him in the office and not brought to the house.
Soomro's response was that his action was within the rules, and if Rabbani wanted further discussion on it he should come to his chamber. That set off a lung-bursting shouting between the two.
Soon other opposition Senators too stood up in their seats in support of Rabbani and then about half a dozen of them moved towards the dais and took positions in front of the clerks' table.
Chairman Soomro tried to ignore the opposition's protest and took up the next item that was leave applications by the members.
Raza Rabbani insisted on a discussion on his killed privilege motion. That generated heat raising the tempers, which exploded in Raza Rabbani picking up a file from the clerks' table and tearing it into pieces, that he flung at the chairman.
These theatrics, however, came to an abrupt halt as the chairman adjourned the house to meet again on Monday evening.
The opening of the sitting was very orderly. The question hour lasted about 90 minutes during which there was lively debate that ensued from the minister's replies.
Both the health minister, Muhammad Nasir Khan, and Foreign Minister Kasuri came well prepared and they fielded the supplementary questions asked by senators quite confidently.
Members from both sides of the aisle appeared to be making a fresh beginning in the post-LFO period.
That was seen from the ringside a forerunner of a "peaceful tomorrow" when President Pervez Musharraf would address the joint session of parliament.
But by the time the sitting concluded, with opposition gathered close to the dais and shouting at the chairman, such a hope had faded.
Article 56(3) of the Constitution mandates that at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the National Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both houses assembled together.
President Musharraf did not address the joint session for the first year due to the hostile opposition that had paralysed the functioning of parliament protesting that LFO should be brought before it.
Now that MMA has broken ranks with the opposition the government finds opportune that the president should address the joint session.
In the recent past a joint session has never been a pleasant affair. President Ghulam Ishaq was confronted with Benazir Bhutto-led opposition when she led the protest shouting "Go Baba Go".
Farooq Leghari faced two such embarrassments. Rafique Tarar was not spared, too. If what happened within the teak-panelled circular National Assembly hall appeared less boisterous in the public eye , who saw it alive on Pakistan TV, it was because of the special acoustics fitted to filter out the noise raised by the opposition and selective filming of the event.
Those in the ringside seats saw much more, some of which remains etched in memory, for instance, a lady member throwing bangles at Farooq Leghari.
What 'strategy' the opposition would adopt in its bid to drown out the speech by President Pervez Musharraf remains a mystery.
Final shape to that would be given at its meeting Saturday morning just before the joint session. But, certainly it would raise rumpus, and possibly towards the end of the presidential address it would stage a walkout.
Given that in the joint meeting of the two houses the ARD-centred opposition should have around a hundred-member strength and at latest 80 or so would attend the session the potential for making the president 'unheard' in the galleries would be huge.
Where does the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal stand vis-à-vis the protest against the presidential address is not known.
The MMA caucus too would meet an hour of ahead of the joint session and finalise its 'strategy'. One odd report says that MMA would demand production of PML (N)'s incarcerated leader, Javed Hashmi, to the joint session.
Since his production in the house is very unlikely the religious group may stage a walkout.
Framers of the Constitution did not envisage the presidential address to be a State of the Union message the American president makes at the beginning of each year. Yet it has important symbolism.
Constitutionally, he, as Head of State, represents the unity of the Republic. And, in case of President Musharraf's impending address the occasion has acquired added significance that the mainstream opposition does not consider him a legally elected president.
The public interest in the event would not be focused on the fine print of his speech but how the opposition acts as he speaks.
From a political observer's perspective addressing the joint session is the last piece of jigsaw puzzle that is being put in place to bring to culmination his aides' four-year long struggle to give legitimacy to Musharraf rule.
The opposition's protest is part of the game and the government is not greatly worried about the ferocity of the protest.
However, what cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty is how President Musharraf may react to the protest by the opposition. Keep your fingers crossed, advised a doomsayer.