FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The National Assembly session on Wednesday lacked lustre as majority of the members from both treasury as well as opposition did not turn up while most of the ministers were busy in Cabinet meeting on law and order situation in the country. The members might have preferred to sit at home, thinking that there will be no business in the house as most of the ministers will be busy in the Cabinet meeting.
This is worth noticing that why opposition members have also lost interest in proceedings of the house. The result was that no significant businesses could be taken up. PML-Q member Riaz Hussain Pirzada has been presiding over the proceedings for the last seven days due to absence of Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza and Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi as both of them are out of the country.
It was observed that only eight to ten members of main opposition parties of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) were present in the house. Almost all front seats of senior members and parliamentary leaders of different political parties were empty.
The government has summoned this session especially for presenting the draft of recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms for 18th Amendment in the constitution. The Minister for Labour and Manpower had already said on the floor of the house that this session has been called for the reforms of the Constitution.
Now all the members are anxiously waiting for 18th Amendment bill for removing distortions in the Constitution made by former president Pervez Musharraf to prolong his rule. For removing the distortions in the Constitution made by former dictators, the parliamentary committee has conducted more than 64 marathon meetings for reviewing the constitution. Now the committee is in final stage as its recommendations have almost been done.
The members of the parliamentary committee would go through their recommendations once again in today's (Thursday) meeting and the draft may be laid down before National Assembly and Senate on Monday. After presenting the recommendations in both the houses, it is expected that the president may address joint session of the parliament on March 22.
If the PPP government is succeeded in getting 18th Amendment bill passed unanimously from both the houses of the Parliament, it would be considered a great achievement of PPP after 1973. If it used the delaying tactics as it did in judges' restoration case, the credit to strengthen democracy and supremacy of Constitution must be taken by some other political parties.
As usual, the house was adjourned after levelling allegations against each other. PML-Q stalwart Faisal Saleh Hayat came harsh at both PML-N and PPP, accusing them of bringing no visible change in its policies. The same old policies of Musharraf era are being pursued while both the parties leave no stone unturned in criticising him. Faisal especially targeted PML-N during his speech, saying that on one hand it wants to implement the Charter of Democracy (CoD) in letter and spirit and on the other it violated the CoD for new procedure of the appointment of judges.