ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Voicing what they called their `sovereign political will`, ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly joined forces on Thursday to reject controversial schedules given by the Election Commission, on Supreme Court orders, for local government (LG) elections in three provinces and called for a new time-frame to ensure fair and credible vote.

The snub to the schedules envisaging the filing of nomination papers between Nov 8 and 12 and voting on Nov 27 in Sindh and on Dec 7 in Punjab and Balochistan came in a unanimous resolution following angry speeches by lawmakers complaining of judicial interference in political matters and of a hasty approach that they said would make fair election impossible. Even delimitation of constituencies had not finished in some cases, they said.

Apparently after consultations behind the scenes with other parties, Leader of Opposition Khurshid Ahmed Shah of the PPP interrupted a debate on a Nov 1 US drone strike that killed Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud to protest against the election schedules announced on Wednesday for Punjab and Sindh the one for Balochistan had been announced earlier. His move was endorsed by desk-thumping cheers from both sides of the aisle and lawmakers from all major parties, including two ministers from the PML-N and opposition PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

But while no schedule had yet been announced for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the PTI-led provincial government was engaged in the process of a new legislation for the purpose, Balochistan`s name was inserted into the resolution through an amendment after PMAP leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai too signed the text.

The resolution said the house believed that under the recently announced programme for the three provinces it `is practically difficult to deliver free and fair election`.

`This house resolves that conducting the LG elections in hasty and non-transparent manner will cast a doubt on the credibility not only of the process but also results. The Election Commission of Pakistan must ensure that proper procedures are followed and minimum required time must be allotted for free, fair and transparent LG elections,` it said.

Noting that the state-run Pakistan Printing Corporation had shown its inability to carry out its legal obligation to print millions of ballot papers in the given time, the resolution said the printing `by any private printing press may not be acceptable as it would make the transparency of election process questionable`.

`The sovereign political will of this house must prevail in a democratic process of elections which has to be transparent, free and fair,` said the text, which called for it to be forwarded to the ECP.

`With utmost respect... I want to tell the Supreme Court that holding elections is not the judiciary`s job,` Mr Shah said, warning in Urdu that `Pakistan ka bera gharaq ho jaey ga` (Pakistan will suffer great harm) if election were held in this manner.

PTI`s Mr Qureshi called the given election schedules `impracticable` and threatened that `we will come on roads` if the polls were rigged.

Despite a warning from Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to house members to keep in view Article 68 of the constitution prohibiting discussion in parliament `with respect to the conduct of any judge of the Supreme Court or of a high court in the performance of his duties`, two ministers stood up in support of opposition`s viewpoint.

Defence Production Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain said this article did not stop lawmakers from speaking on political matters.

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique referred to a proposed bill sent to the prime minister to remove objectionable clauses of a British-era act about elections of cantonment boards and called for the Supreme Court to `consider the voice of people` about local government elections, which he said would create a mess if held under the present schedules.

PPP parliamentary leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the judiciary`s job was to dispense justice, not to run a government, and called for bringing an amendment to the constitution to guard against restricting parliament`s powers or, he said,`the whole system will be upsidedown`.

A speech by MQM member Abdul Rashid Godil blaming what he called democratic governments` failure to hold local government elections for the Supreme Court intervention.

But MQM parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar eventually signed the resolution and later explained in the house that `we don`t want an indefinite postponement` of the elections.

DRONE DEBATE: During the day`s debate on the drone strike, States and Frontier Regions Minister Abdul Qadir Baloch called it a `misfortune for us` that the Taliban commander had been killed by missiles launched at his compound in North Waziristan tribal area `at this stage`. He said `he would have talked with us (in the planned peace talks) if hehad been alive`.But he cautioned against taking a sentimental approach, which he said could create difficulties for the government in the future. `Time of Sultan Rahi and Mazhar Shah is gone,` he said, recalling Punjabi film actors known for their threatening roles, in an apparent reference to PTI`s threat to block Nato supplies to Afghanistan passing through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. `Don`t engage in barhaks (loud threats),` he advised such hardliners.

Mr Baloch, a retired lieutenant general, said he could say on the basis of his military experience that such a blockade would make little difference while most of the Nato forces in Afghanistan were due to leave the country next year and because `forces always keep reserves for a year or more`.