Islamabad: In a noisy session of the Pakistan National Assembly, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain escaped the no-trust move, as the Opposition members did not cast any vote to protest what they called the "biased attitude" of the Deputy Speaker in running the session. Before the session began on June 28 morning, all Opposition Parliamentarians staged a protest march in front of the Parliament House.

The Opposition, led by an Islamic alliance, wants to punish the Speaker for a ruling to uphold President Pervez Musharraf's Constitutional amendments, made under a Legal Framework Order (LFO), that give him the power to dissolve the Parliament.

The Opposition, which wants Musharraf to step down as Chief of Army Staff also objects to the creation of a powerful National Security Council, which includes military leaders as well as politicians, and which they say is an attempt to institutionalise the role of the military in state affairs.

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, says the Constitutional changes introduced by him are vital for political stability in a country ruled for more than half of its 55-year history by the military.

The pro-military ruling party of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and its allies, opposing the move, also abstained from the secret balloting.

"No, this is a defeat for the government side. The government side has not allowed its members to vote secretly. This is their defeat; this is not the defeat of the Opposition," Qazi Hussain Ahmed, an Opposition leader, told reporters.

"And they did not allow the movers and the leadership of the Opposition to speak in favour of the resolution. And they tried to bulldoze the resolution. They acted totally against the procedure of the Parliament," Ahmed added.

An official of the National Assembly said the Opposition parties have filed an application to move a no- trust move against Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob.

Jamali's coalition government enjoys a majority in the 342-seat Assembly, but the Opposition's noisy protests have virtually paralysed Assembly proceedings.

The Opposition needs 172 votes to remove the Speaker, but 143 members stood during the session to support the no-trust move. Pakistan's Information and Media Development Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said the Opposition had decided not to vote their own motion, because they were short of majority.

"So when they saw that they don't have the number, they decided not to vote. If they have to vote, its very clear, they have 143 (members)," he told reporters after the end of the session. The government leaders see the no-trust move as a ploy to embarrass the government when President Musharraf is on an important four-nation trip.

ANI