ISLAMABAD, Nov 19 Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on Wednesday that “black laws” decreed by former president Pervez Musharraf would be undone “one by one”, as the house revoked one of them amid an apparently ill-timed walkout by the PML-N, but he would not mention the main culprits the present rulers seem to savour.

He hailed the passage of a comprehensive new Industrial Relations Bill, which repeals the union-curbing Industrial Relations Ordinance of 2002, as “a great achievement” that he said fulfilled one of the manifesto promises of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and described a token protest walkout by the Pakistan Muslim League-N as “a bit hasty”.

“And these black laws we will undo one by one,” the prime minister said. The house passed the new bill after the PML-N walked out of the house protesting at what it called a government attempt to bulldoze the legislation, which had already been unanimously passed by the Senate, where the PML-N had backed it.

But Mr Gilani avoided to respond to PML-N members' calls — or to recall his own previous promises — to show the same zeal to undo the controversial 17th Amendment to the Constitution that legitimised all Musharraf decrees, including those that transferred some major prime ministerial powers to the presidency, and his sacking of some 60 superior court justices under his extra-constitutional emergency proclamation of Nov 3, 2007.

However, Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Raza Rabbani, apparently seeking to keep hopes alive, earlier told the house the PPP remained committed with the PML-N under a joint Charter of Democracy (CoD) for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and the Constitution's Article 58(2)b, which empowers the president to dissolve the National Assembly and sack a prime minister.

He acknowledged a “delay in the time-frame” but said there was no reneging on the commitment in the CoD, signed by assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in London during their exile in 2006.

And, recalling the execution of PPP founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 by then military ruler Gen Mohammad Ziaul Haq, the minister said “We did not bow before any dictator and preferred to go to the gallows...”

But an unimpressed PML-N marched out in protest as Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, then chairing the house, started taking vote on the bill, which was supported by other opposition parties like the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

In a jibe at PML-N's support for Gen Zia, which also indicated a widening gulf between the two parties that are allies in the Punjab government but rivals in the centre, Mr Rabbani said “We did not selectively support dictatorship and preferred to suffer flogging and offer the sacrifice of our lives.”

He also said the house debate had made it clear to working classes who wanted to restore their trade union rights through the new legislation and who was trying to delay them.

The minister denied any bulldozing, saying the bill had been thoroughly discussed in a Senate standing committee and later in the upper house itself, where he acts as the leader of the house, before being passed unanimously with PML-N's support.

PML-N's main demand was for the inclusion of a provision for the appointment of a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court as chairman of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) in consultation with the chief justice rather than a government nominee as had been the practice in the past.

But the PML-N seemed to have incurred some embarrassment for itself as being seen as delaying a pro-labour legislation, as its information secretary Ahsan Iqbal issued a clarification afterwards saying the party walked out because the PPP government “intends to appoint some jiyala (party diehard)” as the NIRC chairman.

“That is why the PML-N opposed this bill in the National Assembly and walked out of the session for non-incorporation of proposed amendments,” he said.

A statement of objects and reasons accompanying the 89-clause bill said that besides the repeal of the IRO 2002, the new enactment sought to regulate “the government's vision on dignity of labour, elimination of animosity and antagonism by fostering a trust relationship between employers and employees and promoting social dialogue in the law”.

It cited other objects of the bill as to give right of association to the workers employed in railways “on MOD lines”, Pakistan Mint, and in any institution established for payment of employees' old-age pensions or for workers' welfare; to provide free discretion to trade unions to join or not to join any federation or confederation of their own choice, and to revive labour appellate tribunals on persistent demand of trade unions and federations in order to ensure speedy disposal of labour disputes.

Former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao called for bringing an early constitutional amendment to revoke the 17th Amendment as the only speaker of the day in the continuing debate on President Asif Ali Zardari's Sept 20 address to a joint sitting of parliament before the house was adjourned until 10am on Thursday.

Mr Sherpao also proposed an immediate start of a peace dialogue with tribal dissidents under a joint resolution passed by a secret session of parliament last month, stoppage of US Predator attacks on the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, confidence-building measures in the area, steps for an early recovery of an Afghan and an Iranian diplomat kidnapped from Peshawar, an early removal of “regressive” clauses of the Frontier Crimes Regulations applicable to Fata, an early convening of the National Finance Commission and payment of its due share to the NWFP and more effective measures to ensure provincial autonomy.