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Govt, Opp ask president to address Parliament

* Prime minister Gilani says ministerial committee has been formed to present plan on route of long march procession

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza and several treasury members on Tuesday endorsed the opposition’s demand that President Pervez Musharraf address the joint sitting of Parliament, saying it was a constitutional obligation.

Responding to a point of order raised by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief whip Riaz Hussain Pirzada, who sought the speaker’s ruling on the matter, Gilani said that it was a constitutional requirement that each parliamentary year start with a presidential address to a joint sitting of Parliament.

“I support [the] opposition’s demand,” Gilani said, inviting the president to address the joint session of Parliament. He said the government would move a summary in this regard.

“He (Musharraf) has stated that he respects Parliament and will follow its decisions. This has established the supremacy of Parliament,” the premier said, amid applause from both treasury and opposition benches.

President Musharraf only addressed a joint session once during the five-year term of the previous assembly.

The speaker, in her ruling, also supported the opposition’s demand, but noted that the budget could be presented without a presidential address to a joint session. Several other members of the PPP also supported this point of view.

Ministerial committee formed: Khurram Dastagir from the PML-Nawaz raised another point of order on the government’s planned response to the lawyers’ long march. Responding, Gilani said that he had constituted a committee comprising Law, Information, Labour, Water and Power ministers and his adviser on Interior to present a plan before the provincial governments and the lawyers’ leaders about the route of the procession.

Addressing Parliament, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik vowed that the government would not create any hurdles for the protesters, adding however that a “third party” could disrupt law and order.

He said the government was considering proposing that the lawyers culminate their procession at either Zero Point or Shakarparian as their current endpoint, Constitutional Avenue, was not appropriate due to its proximity to a sensitive diplomatic area.

To another point of order, Malik said that the recently signed agreement between leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Swat and the NWFP government was intact. He claimed that a section of the press misquoted him as saying that it was scrapped.

On the imposition of Shariah law in Swat Valley, Malik said it was decided in 1962, at the time of accession of state of Swat to Pakistan, that Shariah would be enforced there.

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