Amir Hussain stands by his ruling on MNAs’ disqualification

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly (NA) Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Wednesday stood by his previous ruling that members of the National Assembly (MNAs) could be disqualified if they ridiculed the armed forces or the judiciary.

Chaudhry Amir said this while responding to a point raised by Naheed Khan and Nayyar Bukhari of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) that they had only discussed the conduct of an individual – referring to the alleged constitutional violations by President General Pervez Musharraf – in Tuesday’s session and as such had not breached the NA rules.

Chaudhry Amir told Naheed Khan that she had called on army troops to keep a check on the generals during her speech. The NA speaker said that he had expunged her statement under the NA rules. The parliamentarians must respect any bill passed by parliament, he said, adding that parliament passed the bill allowing President Musharraf to hold two offices and the parliamentarians must not criticise it.

Earlier, Nayyar Bukhari said that the opposition’s criticism of General Musharraf must not be taken as criticism of the armed forces. He said that none of the PPPP members defamed the armed forces or the judiciary.

Naheed Khan said, “We respect our armed forces because they guard our frontiers, but we do criticise a few generals”. The PPPP leader said a general had no right to summon and chair the meeting of a political party.

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