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ISLAMABAD: Ch. Shujaat Hussain was elected, with a magnificent majority vote, as the new Leader of the House in the National Assembly, placing him as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, a short while ago.

He defeated his arch political rival, Makhdoom Amin Fahim of ARD who could get just 76 votes. The religio-political alliance, MMA stayed away and did not participate in the election process.

Shujaat, who is the chief of the ruling faction of Pakistan Muslim League [PML], sought 190 votes at a special session of the lower House of the Parliament, the National Assembly, which was chaired by Speaker Ch. Amir Hussain.

A close associate of the ex-Prime Minister and Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party [PPP], Ms Benazir Bhutto, the political stalwart Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who hails from the province of Sindh clutched just 76 votes.

Uproar and Pandemonium

Special Correspondent of Pakistan’s first independent daily web newspaper, ‘Pakistan Times’ reports from the Press Gallery that the special session was marred by a state of uproar and pandemonium as the opposition members of the Assembly raised a lot of objections vis-à-vis the election of Ch. Shujaat Hussain.

Whereas some of the opposition MPs lifted eye-brows, terming him as ‘a bank defaulter and inept to contest for the Premiership’, the others raised voice of protest against the Speaker for ‘not issuing the production orders of Javed Hashmi, the jailed leader of the PML faction, which is led by the deposed Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif who dwells in Saudi Arabia, now-a-days. MP Raja Pervez Ashraf of the Opposition told the House that Opposition wanted to approach the Chief Election Commissioner, seeking a stay order to prevent the election of Ch. Shujaat Hussain.

Walk-out

Yet his viewpoint was not accepted by the ruling PML members who have the support of MQM both in the National Assembly as well as in the Upper House, the Senate of Pakistan. Amid this scenario, the Opposition staged a walk-out, a course which delayed the election of the new Leader of the House, in other words the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Perspective

Ch. Shujaat Hussain, 58, who is the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, since the emergence of Pakistan on the global Atlas on August-14 in 1947, belongs to Gujrat city of the Punjab Province and has been Federal Minister of Pakistan at several times in past. He succeeds Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who resigned from the apex slot of Premiership on June-26 for reasons best known to him [Jamali].

Pre-Election Story of 'Pakistan Times'

With a zest to bring in the change of face vis-à-vis the Leader of the House in the Lower House of the Parliament, who would eventually enter into the corridors of power as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, two politicians emerged on the horizons of polity Monday to clutch the apex slot.

Amid hectic political maneuvers, which have camouflaged the country’s capital for the last several days, the two faces which came in light are the President of the ruling faction of the Pakistan Muslim League [PML] Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his arch rival Makhdoom Amin Fahim of PPP-P, in a way an alternate version of Pakistan Peoples Party, which is led by ex-Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, who is in exile with abode wither in Dubai in UAE or London in the United Kingdom.

Nomination Papers

Both, Ch. Shujaat Hussain [who enjoys optimal support of the parliamentarians and is even being backed by ex-Premier Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and PPP-P’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim, an influential political figure and a close associate of Ms Bhutto filed their nomination papers in the office of the Secretary National Assembly to participate in the election for Leader of the House.

Both leaders went to the office of the Secretary National Assembly along with
their party leaders separately and submitted their nomination papers. Ch. Shujaat Hussain is candidate of PML and its allied parties while Amin Fahim is ARD's candidate.

Office of Secretary National Assembly, Salim Mahmood Salim told Pakistan's first independent daily newspaper on the Web, 'Pakistan Times' Monday that in all 18 nomination papers have been submitted for Ch. Shujaat Hussain by thirty eight members of the National Assembly who proposed and seconded the nomination of PML President.

The members who proposed and seconded the nomination papers of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, are:

Ex-Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Rehana Mashhadi, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, Salim Jan Mazari, Dr Farooq Sattar (MQM), Seyd Safwanullah (MQM), Dr. Nasim Afridi, Javed Hassan, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Rana Tariq Javed, Ghaus Bakhash Mahar, Liaqat Ali Jatoi, Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain, Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind, Dr. Attaya Inaytullah, Zeb Gohar, Gian Chand Singh, Dr Mushtaq Victor, Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq, Jehangir Khan Tarin, Zahid Hamid, Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf, Begum Khurshid Afghan, Mrs.Zubaida Jalal, Dr.Noor Jehan Panezai, Begum Mehnaz Rafih, Begum Shehnaz Sheikh, Munir Khan Aurakzai, Maulana Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Riaz Fatiana and Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed Jatt.

A number of other party leaders including Chief Minister Punjab Ch. Pervaiz Elahi, Shaukat Aziz and Muhammad Nasir Khan besides the members of Pakistan Muslim League, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and PPP were present on the occasion.

ARD Candidate sans MMA

ARD's candidate Makhdoom Amin Fahim's nomination papers were proposed and seconded by Manzoor Hussain Wassan, Rukhsana Bangash, Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Zulfiqar Ali Gondal, Raja Parvez Ashraf, Syed Khurshid Shah, Tahmina Daultana and Ch.Nisar Ali Khan.

However, MMA has not fielded its candidate for the post of Leader of the House.

Speaker Accepts Nomination Papers

Speaker National Assembly, Ch.Amir Hussain has accepted the nomination papers of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, President PML and Makhdoom Amin Fahim of PPP-P here on Monday after completing scrutiny process according to the Constitution of the country and Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

Both the leaders filed their nomination papers in the office of the Secretary National Assembly to participate in the election for the Leader of the House.

Ch. Shujaat Hussain is candidate of PML and its allied parties while Amin Fahim is ARD's candidate. The Speaker rejected objection raised by Raja Pervez Ashraf of PPP-P against Ch.Shujaat Hussain related to bank loans.

Fazlur Rahman Reax

Opposition leader in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehaman Monday announced Mutehida Majlis-a-Amal (MMA) would not nominate its candidate for election of Leader of the House.

Addressing a meet-the-press programme in Islamabad, he said, the six-party alliance has not yet decided to whom it would support. Maulana Fazlur Rehman said if Alliance for Restoration of Democracy [ARD] nominated Javed Hashmi as its candidate for the slot of leader of the house, then MMA might offer its full support.

"We had asked ARD to nominate Javed Hashmi as joint opposition candidate only to strengthen and unite the opposition," he said while responding to a question. He said Javed Hashmi has full support of MMA.

The MMA Leader said the nomination of candidate other than Javed Hashmi by ARD would mean division of joint opposition, he added.

Answering a question, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, who is also Secretary General of MMA said the election of leader of the house has no link with selection of opposition leader.

He said change of leader of the house in the national assembly should not affect the slot of opposition leader.

Special Session of National Assembly

A special session of the National Assembly session will be held today, Tuesday at 4 p.m. for the election of the new Leader of the House in the National Assembly. Speaker National Assembly Ch. Amir Hussain will preside over the session.

The special session of the National Assembly has been convened after prorogation of the on-going budget session by President General Pervez Musharraf.

This special session of the National Assembly has been summoned under article 91 clause 2 (a) to elect the Leader of the House.

Shujaat Meets Musharraf

Prime Minister-designate Ch. Shujaat Hussain Monday called on President General Pervez Musharraf.

This was his first meeting with the President after his nomination by the Pakistan Muslim League and its allied parties as Prime Minister.

The President greeted Ch Shujaat Hussain on his nomination as Prime Minister and hoped that he would come up to the confidence reposed in him by his party and public representatives.

Senator Shaukat Aziz and Chief Minister of Punjab, Ch. Perwaiz Elahi were also present in the meeting.

Optimism for Shujaat

Political pundits are of the view that by all parameters of the current political scenario of Pakistan, Ch. Shujaat Hussain will seek the requisite vote of confidence from a hefty number of MPs very conveniently.

His victory to become the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan is certain as he has enormous backing with him. On the contrary, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, though a heavy weight in country’s polity has petite chances for triumph, explicitly due to, comparatively much less number of parliamentarians as his back.

The major setback, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who hails from an eminent tribe with a lot of devotees of Hala in the Sindh province, has to face is that the largest opposition party, the religio-political alliance, the MMA has opted to stay away in extending support to him for reasons which were, prima facie not acceptable to PPP-P.

Even if MMA would have extended support to Fahim, it would have been difficult for him [Makhdoom Amin Fahim] to win as majority of the MNAs with MQM included supports Ch. Shujaat who belongs to the Punjab province.

The PMs

As is indexed in the history, Khan Liaquat Ali Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan who remained in this office from August-14 in 1947 till October-16, 1951, the day when he was assassinated while addressing a public meeting in Rawalpindi, a city close the capital city of Islamabad. The successors of late Liaquat Ali Khan include: Khawaja Nazimuddin [Oct-17, 1951—April 17, 1953], Muhammad Ali Bogra [April-17, 1953—August-12 1955], Ch. Muhammad Ali [August-12 1955—September 12, 1956], Hussain Shaheed Suharawardy [September-12, 1956—October-13, 1957], Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar [October-17, 1957—December-10, 1957], Malik Feroz Khan Noon [December-16, 1957—October-7, 1958], [There was no Prime Minister from October-7, 1958 to July-3, 1972 due to imposition of Martial Law by Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1958 who later handed over reigns of power to General Yahya Khan], Zulfikar Ali Bhutto succeeded President Yahya Khan as the first-ever civilian Chief Martial Law Administer and later took over as the Prime Minister [July-3, 1972—July 5, 1977]—where after he was deposed by General Zia-ul-Haq when the country was governed by him [Zia] with a Presidential form of government till March-24, 1985 when late Muhammad Khan Junejo took over as the next Prime Minister and was subsequently sacked by General Zia-ul-Haq on May-29 in 1988, moments after Junejo’s return from a visit abroad. After a brief pause, Benazir Bhutto took over as the new Prime Minister on December-9 in 1988 till August-10 1990, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi [August-16, 1990—November-1, 19990], Mian Nawaz Sharif [November-1 1990—April-10 1993], Mir Bulakh Sher Mazari [April-18, 1993—May-26 1993], Mian Nawaz Sharif [May-26 1993—July-18 1993], Moeen Qureshi [July-18 1993—October-19 1993], Benazir Bhutto [October-19, 1993—November-5 1996], Malik Meraj Khalid [November-5 1996—Februray-13 1997] and Mian Nawaz Sharif [February-17 1997—October-1999], [There was no Prime Minister from October-12 1999 till November-21 2002 as Pervez Musharraf took over as the Chief Executive and later simultaneously with the status of the President of Pakistan]—and then came Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali who held the office of Prime Minister [October-21, 2002—June 26 2004]—where after he resigned from the premiership.

With this backdrop Ch. Shujaat Hussain will be the 20th Prime Minister and is likely to be followed by ex-Minister for Finance, Senator Shaukat Aziz—if and when he wins election as member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from any constituency and takes oath as MNA.

Since the Constitution of Pakistan has no proviso for a Senator to become the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz shall have to be triumphant in election as MNA to assume the position of Premiership.