ISLAMABAD, March 24: The eight and a half year long rule of President Pervez Musharraf came under fire in the National Assembly on Monday as members of the new ruling coalition demanded immediate restoration of the 1973 Constitution, supremacy of parliament and transfer of powers to the prime minister.

The depleted opposition was unable to provide any moral support to Gen (retd) Musharraf. Instead, they offered full cooperation to the coalition in running the affairs of the country.

Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan supported Mr Gilani’s orders for release of the detained judges and said his party would celebrate only when all the deposed judges, with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on top of the list, would be reinstated.

“Our cooperation with the PPP-led coalition government is on a single-point agenda and we will not sit idle as long as the judges who have been suffering for the past five months are restored,” he said.

He expressed the hope that after the release of the judges the prime minister will take the next step and reinstate them. This issue was a matter of life and death for his party on which it was not ready to compromise, he said.

“We don’t accept Musharraf as a legitimately elected president of the country as he is exercising powers and occupying the Army House illegally and we will support all the measures of the new government which undo his dictatorial policies,” he said.

He said the newly elected prime minister would find himself in a position where all the problems which the country was facing were being transferred to him but he was not enjoying all his constitutional powers, including the appointment of armed forces’ chiefs and the chief election commissioner. He said the powers were being kept by a person whose legitimacy as president was doubtful.

He called for removal of President Musharraf and said parliament needed to be cleansed of the shadows of dictatorship for a smooth transition to a democratic order.

Mr Khan said his party was in favour of an independent foreign policy. He accused President Musharraf of having sold the country’s sovereignty to foreign powers. Pakistan People’s Party leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim criticised the Speaker, Dr Fehmida Mirza, for what he termed her failure to maintain order in the house.

For many, his speech left a bad taste in the mouth because slogan-raising by the PPP and PML-N workers in the visitors’ galleries was not under anybody’s control.

While emphasising the need for reconciliation for the sake of democracy, he said: “We must be watchful so that another adventurer doesn’t intrude to sabotage the democracy that we have achieved through many sacrifices.”

Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan criticised Gen (retd) Musharraf’s war on terrorism and military operations in Balochistan and the tribal areas.

He demanded release of all political prisoners including former chief minister Akhtar Mengal and other Baloch leaders and opening of talks with them. “If we can talk to Manmohan Singh why can’t we do so with our own people?” He regretted that Pakistani guns were being used to kill the country’s citizens.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said a wave of victimisation had been unleashed against his party’s leaders and workers in Sindh soon after the election, which negated the claims of national reconciliation.

He said people had pinned many hopes on the new government and they were looking for reduction in the prices of essential commodities by half.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar called for national reconciliation and said his party’s unconditional support for the PPP was in the larger interest of the people of Sindh.

Chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, said people hoped the new government would mitigate their problems.