FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

As a matter of practice the National Assembly holds its Friday sittings in the forenoon so that the members can have a longer weekend, and reassemble next Monday evening. With almost three days furlough available the members would leave Islamabad and visit their constituencies. This Friday, however, the House met in the afternoon because of the rehearsal for Independence Day parade.
Unlike Tuesday when the House had to be adjourned because the parade rehearsal restricted their arrival at the parliament building provoking serious ruckus on the floor, this Friday they encountered no such hurdle. Yet their attendance was pathetically low--so much so that towards the fag end of the sitting only a dozen members were in the House when the chair opened the floor for debate on price hike.
Even earlier the House had no serious business to transact, but, strangely, there was no across-the-aisle sparring nor the usual walkouts, except the one-man walkout by Ghulam Murtaza Satti who was angry at Speaker Amir Hussain's rough handling of his calling attention notice. Satti also pointed out that the House was short of quorum. That led to counting and it was found that it had the quorum, therefore, the proceedings were not interrupted.
The emptiness of the proceedings was obvious from the very beginning. None of the members whose questions were on the agenda for the day had turned up, providing a minister the rare opportunity to ridicule the opposition for its perennial objection that the ministers do not come to the House.
"All the questions by the opposition have been asked on their behalf", Nauraiz Shakoor pointed out, asking the Speaker to give his ruling on the absence of those who had fielded these question. In another very dull sitting for the minister it was quite a taunt but not for Tehmina Daultana. What is this minister talking when the government cannot put up its presence strong enough even to complete the quorum? She was about to add something to her riposte by brining in the parade rehearsal mentioning when the Speaker switched off her mike.
But Amir Hussain did understand the logic of her argument. He observed that both the members who ask the questions and the ministers, state ministers and the concerned parliamentary secretaries should be present.
The slightly mellowed down Speaker also requested another member "Please resume your seat...I don't want to say sit down". Last week his 'sit-down' order to Naheed Khan had earned him serious rebuke and a walkout.
But the lack of quorum may cease to be an issue in future. The government is thinking of revising the rules to remove the condition that for the House to be in order one-fourth of its strength must be present. At the same time, reports say, PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has asked the Prime Minister to ensure that all ministers, state ministers and secretaries would attend the proceedings. President Musharraf is also likely to coax the government members to be more regular. Additionally, some 'rewards' are also likely to be offered to enhance members' motivation to come to the House.
Before taking up the agenda the chair invited point of orders, to let members, particularly from the opposition, ventilate their feelings. Hafiz Hussain Ahmad asked if Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who has come to the House after long absence, to give his comment on the ongoing controversy over the 'religion column' in the passport.
"There can be no two opinions on it", he said adding it would be better if the government decided on it, otherwise the parliament would pronounce its verdict. But the real upshot, if you please, from the otherwise drab sitting was Sheikh Rashid's offer to the detractors of government action in Bugti to take them to the affected area. Within a few minutes of his making the offer a number of opposition members accepted the invitation for the daylong trip.