The onus of ensuring presence and favorable voting of a minimum of a two-thirds majority of the total members, 442, of the National Assembly and the Senate will lie on the sponsors of the impeachment resolution against President Pervez Musharraf. The abstention or absence of any number of MPs on the voting day for any reasons will be counted as the anti-motion vote. “In ordinary law making, a piece of legislation is considered to have been validly passed in a House of Parliament if the majority of the members present and voting support it,” a constitutional expert told this correspondent. He said that in such case it was not essential that a draft law under consideration must secure the majority of the total members of the concerned parliamentary chamber. But in the case of an impeachment motion, it is mandatory that at least a two-thirds majority in parliament (295 MPs in the instant case) must vote in its favor for its success. The number factor, applicable to an impeachment motion, is somewhat different from what is required for the passage of a constitutional amendment. In the case of such an amendment, the two-thirds majority in each House must support it for its approval. In the present case, the main responsibility of guaranteeing participation of a maximum number of MPs and voting in its favor rests on the ruling coalition especially its major partners, the PPP and PML-N, to come out of the huge parliamentary test with flying colors. For the ruling alliance, an immaculate and flawless planning will be the need of the hour. It will be desperate to look at every aspect of move particularly logistics to make certain that none of its voters even from any far off place of Pakistan stays out of the polling station (the circular hall of the National Assembly in this case) on the voting day. Musharraf and his allies are poised to make sure that a maximum number of MPs don't turn up in the polling station. Abstentions and absence will go in their favor. An impeachment resolution against the president is akin to some extent to a no confidence motion against the prime minister. In the case of the no trust resolution, the responsibility of bringing the requisite simple majority in the National Assembly lies on the opposition for its success. But it is the government that is saddled with the monumental task of having the required two-thirds majority in both the National Assembly and the Senate meeting together to carry through its motion, when voting on an impeachment motion takes place. Regardless of the usual claims made on such occasions, the present contest being no exception, the outcome of the voting on the impeachment motion may turn out to be a close call for both sides. __
