ISLAMABAD, Nov 1 The National Assembly meets on Monday to begin what is billed to be a hot winter session, poised to own some of former president Pervez Musharraf's legal legacy, including the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Other issues such as the military operation in South Waziristan, the aftermath of the Kerry-Lugar bill of US aid to Pakistan, sugar shortages in the market and continuing power cuts are also likely to come up before the house.

But the NRO is bound to provoke most fiery debates -- mainly on grounds of morality -- with the 19-month-old PPP-led coalition government seeking approval of an amended form of the decree that helped its creation and an opposition dominated by one-time followers of the two previous military rulers vowing to block it.

The decree, which must come before the house in the form of a bill, is one of 37 ordinances issued by Gen Musharraf in the twilight of his power and which must receive parliamentary approval by Nov 28 or they will die under a Supreme Court ruling.

The rest of the ordinances, which the former president enforced under his controversial Nov 3, 2007, emergency that exempted them from parliamentary approval, deal with day-to-day working of different government departments or organisations and could get through the house without much ado.

In a ruling on July 31, the Supreme Court nullified that emergency proclamation, but gave the government 120 days to decide the fate of the 37 ordinances after they lost protection given by the extra-constitutional move.

An opposition outcry over the approval of a bill to legitimise the NRO by the ruling coalition's majority in a 17-member standing committee on law and justice on Friday indicated there will be no smooth sailing for the draft in the house.

Although the government will have a tight schedule to get all the 37 ordinances approved within the next 27 days, there was no immediate word whether the NRO bill would be introduced on the first day of the session.

The NRO was issued on Oct 5, 2007, with the stated aim to “remove the vestiges of political vendetta and victimisation”, but was seen by critics as a deal between the Pakistan People's Party and then president Pervez Musharraf, although other accounts trace most of the beneficiaries in other parties like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and among former bureaucrats charged with corruption.

Legal experts have been speculating about political consequences if parliament fails to approve the NRO, particularly in relation to cases of disputed corruption charges instituted against President Asif Ali Zardari as well as his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, in the late 1990s by the government of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The ordinance had made it possible for Ms Bhutto to return in Oct 2007 from a self-imposed exile since early 1999 and lead her party's election campaign.

The decree empowered the federal and provincial governments to “withdraw” -- before the judgment by a trial court -- from “the prosecution of any person, including an absconding accused, who is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimisation in any case initiated between the 1st day of January, 1986, to the 12th day of October, 1999”.

It also provided for the constitution of boards to review the entire record of cases and make recommendation about their withdrawal or otherwise.