Parliamentary opposition unveiled several measures this week designed to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf as he kicked off his two-week tour of Western capitals and perhaps break an eight-month standoff over the issue of a uniformed president. In back-to-back moves, opposition leaders this week presented a high treason bill that would see General Musharraf and his supporters publicly denounced, challenged his right to enter in to any bilateral agreements during his tour, and announced plans for a vote of no-confidence against the speaker of the parliament. 'We are in the middle of one of the blackest chapters of our parliamentary history and now we must stand strong in the cause of true democracy,' said Razza Rabbani, a representative of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP). Opposition leaders slam General Musharraf as pursuing a sham democracy in which he - while acting as both president and head of the army - maintains the power to dismiss parliament. The bill would publicly identify any person, dead or alive, guilty of subverting the Pakistani constitution. Under the proposal, names of traitors and their collaborators would be followed by the brand of traitor in all government documents and textbooks, with the list of names read out in its entirety every year on August 14, Pakistani Independence Day. 'No individual has the right to change the constitution; that is the express right of a duly elected parliament,' contended the bill's sponsor, PPP senator Farhatullah Babar. While even supporters of the motion - up for debate in the coming days - admit it is unlikely to pass, they argue pressure must be brought to bear. In that vein, opposition members stormed out of Monday's parliamentary session while General Musharraf's supporters voted on a motion to support his overseas efforts. Standing shoulder to shoulder outside the National Assembly building in downtown Islamabad, opposition party leaders delivered a message directly to the international community. 'We are telling the world leaders whatever agreements Musharraf signs during his trip will be illegitimate, he is acting in the capacity as an individual, not a head of state,' said Baluchistan National Party senator Sanaullah Baloch. The struggling leaders also confirmed plans to pursue a vote of no-confidence against the parliamentary speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain after he ruled in favour of General Musharraf's unilateral constitutional amendments without allowing debate on the assembly floor. 'We must do everything within our capabilities to fight against the facade of democracy Musharraf has created,' argued Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan's largest religious party. 'He is threatening the evolution of the democratic process, violating the constitution and besmirching the face of Pakistan throughout the world.'
