A new chapter begins: Assembled

Newly elected MNAs take oath in Pakistan’s 14th National Assembly.

ISLAMABAD:

The story was in the slogans. Five years ago the National Assembly resounded to shouts of Jiye Bhutto, but on the inaugural session of the lower house of Parliament, it was Sher Aya that was on most people’s lips when prime minister-to-be Nawaz Sharif, the overall winner of the May 11th elections, walked into the hall from the side of Prime Minister’s chamber. For him and his supporters, June 1st has an added significance, as it marks the day he returned to the house as an elected member after a gap of over 13 years.

Previously, Speaker Fehmida Mirza had asked members to refrain from chanting slogans as she administered the oath to 301 out of a total 342 members, the majority of whom were from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and almost two-thirds of whom have entered the assembly for the first time.

“This is a very august house. Please refrain from chanting slogans here,” Dr. Mirza told charged supporters who were applauding their respective members-elect’s entry into the house with claps and chants.

But the first female speaker of the National Assembly did not stop the packed galleries from rising up in chants of ‘Sher Aya, Sher Aya’ when the PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif’s name was called. The house echoed with shouts of ‘Wazir-e-Azam Nawaz Sharif’.



The jubilation was justified. It was, after all, for the first time in Pakistan’s 66 years of existence that a democratically elected government completed a full term and handed over the reins of power to another. It was not, of course, the first time that a PPP government gave way to a PML-N one, but the two previous such transitions took place in a highly questionable way, amidst a highly acrimonious atmosphere.

“I will obey Pakistan’s constitution and will carry out my responsibilities with complete honesty and to the best of my abilities,” the members read after Dr. Mirza in their oaths. Before the oath-taking, the speakers congratulated the newly-elected members. “I welcome all the members. May Allah help you all to come up to the expectations of the nation,” she said before going on to silence their supporters seated in the galleries raising slogans.

The PML-N chief, set to become Prime Minister for the third time on June 5, on entering the house first shook hands with his estranged friends, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Ijazul Haq, who had left him after former military dictator Pervez Musharraf toppled Sharif’s government in 1999.

Accompanying Sharif was former leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who preferred to ignore the old friends-turned rivals and moved on. From the opposition benches, Sharif was greeted by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Syed Khurshid Shah. Besides Khurshid Shah, only the PPP’s Alizay Haider and the Awami National Party’s (ANP) only representative Amir Haider Khan Hoti greeted Sharif. Others, including Sheikh Rashid and Ejazul Haq, simply walked on by disappointing Sharif, who was perhaps expecting a return of his friendly gesture.

Sharif was allocated a seat next to the one reserved for the leader of the house. After oath-taking, the members were called one by one to put their signatures on the roll, recording the constituency they represented.

The entire exercise took over an hour. Most members, overwhelmed and excited, remained seated in the house till the last of their colleagues signed the roll.

Sharif will soon become the first prime minister to take the reins from a democratically elected government that completed its tenure, and every PML-N member went to shake hands with him after signing his/her name on the roll. This practice was in sharp contrast with the one witnessed five years ago when the then leaderless PPP made it to the assembly with majority seats. The party’s head and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been killed in a terrorist attack months before, and could not witness her party’s return to power. Though her three children were present in the gallery with her portrait and jiyalas chanted slogans in her name, her absence was sorely felt. However, the PPP will not allow Sharif to be elected PM unopposed, and the party leadership announced on Saturday night that Makhdoom Amin Faheem will be fielded as the party’s candidate. Reportedly, the move was taken to avoid the further marginalization of the party.

It was indeed a muted and diminished PPP that attended the June 1 session. Unlike their usual practice, most of its 39 members arrived early and waited for the session to begin. Previously, it was the PML-N members who complained about the late start of the session but this time they were the culprits as due to a meeting of the PML-N’s parliamentary committee the session started two hours late. PML-N’s Malik Abrar was the first one to be called to sign the roll in Urdu alphabetic order, and Sharif had to wait for over an hour for his turn. Officials said the NA secretariat issued over 1000 entry passes to visitors for witnessing the oath-taking ceremony. Besides galleries, the parliament house’s lobbies were bustling with people, including the family members of the newly elected.

But no one was more thrilled than the first-timers, who make up almost two-thirds of the assembly. They appeared visibly excited and, not knowing the house’s decorum, randomly seated themselves at first, only to be later guided to their allocated seats by the assembly staff.

As many as forty one members could not take oath as some did not turn up while others were still waited to be elected from different seats where elections were postponed or re-polling was ordered. They will be administered the oath on their first appearance in the assembly. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2013.