ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: Two main opposition parties, People’s Party Parliamentarians and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), at the floor of National assembly on Thursday pledged not to rock the parliamentary boat and let the House complete its tenure provided the 1973 Constitution is upheld by the elected government.

Both Mualana Fazlur Rehman and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who lost the run, later felicitating the Leader of the House, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, identified 1973 Constitution as the main plank on which the edifice of the restored democracy could be built.

“Have pity on the nation,” Maulana Fazl said, calling upon the government not to make the unanimously-agreed Constitution a controversial document by incorporating Legal Framework Order in it.

Whenever the country had become a land without constitution it had broken down, he said, alluding to the debacle of East Pakistan.

Maulana Fazl after congratulating Mir Zafarullah Jamali on his election as Leader of the House, said it was the combined responsibility of treasury and opposition benches to ensure smooth functioning of democracy.

He hoped that the opposition would be given its due respect by the treasury benches. In the past the democratic system repeatedly failed because the mutual differences of opposition and the government had not been contained within certain limits.

The MMA candidate in his speech spelt out the alliance policies on all the issues ranging from foreign policy to the legislation.

He said Islam is the state religion of Pakistan and there are no two opinions about it. He underlined the need for implementation of the recommendations of Islamic Ideological Council.

On the foreign policy, he said, the MMA had got the mandate on the popular sentiments against the foreign intervention in the country. He said they would press for adopting a foreign policy salvaging the sovereignty of the country.

“In the given situation neither this country can be called a free country nor this nation as a sovereign nation,” he added.

As regards to the economic policies, he regretted that in the past 55 years the country’s economy was not built on the indigenous resources. The country could attain sovereignty only by establishing its economy by developing its own resources, he added.

PPP candidate Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: “We want the system to work,” adding that they were ready to put behind all the election acrimonies, pre and post-poll rigging on the part of government and its role in the formation of forward block in the larger interest of democracy. However, he warned the government not to fiddle with the 1973 Constitution and ensure the supremacy of parliament.

Mr Qureshi noted that Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali could not have been elected as the prime minister without the inciting defection in PPP ranks.

“Democratic values have failed today,” he said, adding that they had set wrong traditions. He alleged that PPP members had been under tremendous pressure to change loyalties. The PPP members had been receiving threats till late on Wednesday night, he added.

He said he saluted those 70 members of the PPP who despite all odds stood their ground and voted for him. He said the results were not unexpected and everybody knew even before the Oct 10 elections that PML-Q would form the government.

The PPP, he said, had its own principles and values and was committed before the nation to uphold these principles. It was the sagacity of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that today Pakistan has a unanimous Constitution, he remarked.

He asked the newly elected prime minister to assert his office and ensure the supremacy of parliament. He recalled that late Mohammad Khan Junejo after taking oath in 1985 had asserted his office and made the dictator of that time to lift martial law from the country.

He called upon the political forces to close their ranks and resist the government’s effort to impose National Security Council and distort the 1973 Constitution by incorporating LFO.

He demanded of the PM-elect to let the PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif return to the country and play their due role in the politics.

The PPP candidate turning toward the MMA members, said they had unanimity of views on the issues of restoration of 1973 Constitution, supremacy of parliament, independence of judiciary and freedom of press, and their future relationship could be built on these principles.

Amir Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed in his speech said Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had been adorned with a crown of thrones. Mr Jamali, he said, had secured victory by a hair thin margin of just one vote.