ISLAMABAD: A scrumptious Lahori-style breakfast, a forgetful law minister and an emotional PPP lawmaker were the highlights of the sessions of the upper and lower house, that saw the unanimous passage of the controversial 21st constitutional amendment on Tuesday.

Known for their love of food, the PML-N leadership turned to time tested methods, using ‘breakfast diplomacy’ to cement a consensus on contentious issues ahead of a hectic day’s legislation.

The day began with a sumptuous breakfast, thrown by the National Assembly speaker in honour of lawmakers, where the prime minister and other ruling party leaders further canvassed for the smooth passage of the constitutional amendment bill.

However, their tricks didn’t work on the Jamaat-i-Islami or the JUI-Fazl, whose leaders stuck to their guns and rejected the bill in its current form.

Just after noon, house proceedings commenced with the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah taking the floor and arguing in favour of the proposed bill.

In a veiled reference to the concerns voiced by the religious parties who had boycotted the vote, Mr Shah, said that regardless of their educational backgrounds, only terrorists with proven track records would be tried in military courts.

Senator Pervez Rashid – the non-expert law minister – also appeared nervous as he presented the bill for enactment.

He was twice corrected by the speaker for not reading out the right clauses. Once, Mr Rashid mixed up the sequence of the bill and was duly assisted by Defence Production Minister Rana Tanvir in finding the missing page.

In complete contrast, however, an altogether gloomy-looking Senate met in the evening to pass the bill. The proceedings were dominated by a passionate-yet-feeble outburst by PPP veteran Raza Rabbani. Unable to hold back his emotions, the senator broke into tears on the house floor and cursed the moment he had cast his vote in favour of setting up military courts.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan also termed the vote as a “difficult moment” of his life. However, he defended his party’s support for the bill, saying, “We have ensured that the bill can’t be used against anyone other than terrorists.”

Talking to Dawn off the record, a senior PPP leader said that voting in favour of military courts would be remembered as the highlight of Mr Asif Ali Zardari’s “sad legacy”. When the people will remember those who took a principled stand, they will recall the JI and JUI-F and not the PPP, whose founder—Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – had always stood steadfast for his principles.

Not known for speaking too much on the floor of the house, PM Nawaz Sharif addressed the Senate twice on Tuesday; once before the passage of the bill and once after.

In the latter address, he thanked each party head personally, including Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan and even the dissenting Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He also gave a special shout-out to Raza Rabbani, saying, “As a democrat, I can understand his feelings.”

There was also confusion regarding what the religious parties were objecting to, as both bills contained no direct reference to madressahs.

The Jamaat’s Dr Fareed Piracha told Dawn that the reference to madressahs was made by the government in the advertisements released to the press, which asked citizens to report suspicious activities at any madressah or mosque, implying that all mosques and seminaries were suspect, which was not the case.

The JI’s objections to the amendments, he said, were based in their definition of terrorism in terms of religious and sectarian terrorism.

He said that terrorism should simply be terrorism and not coloured by religious or sectarian adjectives.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2015

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