 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| The parliamentary kitchen doesn’t get hot for nothing |
|
|
|
Press gallery
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
By Mohammad Malick
To the politically naive, heated exchanges in the House may appear some spur of the moment reaction or an unreasonably emotional response to an otherwise perfectly legitimate grievance. But the weathered old fools watching this theatre from the sidelines know better. This kitchen of Pakistan’s parliament has a history of getting hot, rather real hot, through deliberate stoking of passions, and furies. And today was no exception to this unsettling rule that has so often in the past heralded the unsettling of many.
Nisar Ali Khan was furious. Khwaja Asif simply livid. The entire opposition noisy, and in total defiance mode. Every treasury reconciliatory gesture rudely rebuffed. Hardly, scenes you would have imagined seeing, less than two years down the road, in a house that unanimously elected the prime minister and even passed the last federal budget in a bon homie spirit. So what really went wrong here?
Actually the ball had been set in motion around noon with two interesting developments, thematically identical and timed in unison as well. First there was the press conference of Nawaz Sharif wherein he vowed to do everything at his command to block NRO’s passage in parliament. Then came the remarks of the MQM supremo, Altaf Hussain, who while talking to Geo was reported to have favoured the idea of the president and a close group of some of his top ministers giving a ‘huge sacrifice’ by resigning and saving the entire system. In one stroke he cemented two prevalent impressions.
That, the issue of some very powerful circles was not with the system but only with the person of the president and his coterie and secondly, if the system itself purged itself of ‘certain variables’ then it could well survive and continue. This coming at the heels of yesterday’s absence of MQM from official NRO related deliberations (which had already raised suspicions in the Presidency and elsewhere) gave the raging NRO controversy an entirely new dimension.
Why would the MQM chief take such a huge leap forward and that too so early in this warming up NRO cauldron? Many wondered. If the touted figure of over 2,000 NRO beneficiaries being MQM workers and leaders is correct then why would the MQM chief go against the same law? And if its repeal or shooting down threatened his workers in courts then why would he advise the law being scrapped? Unless of course he has been ‘convinced’ about the future safety of his cadres NRO or no NRO, one would assume.
But like all past MQM surprising moves, and retreats, we would never know the real inside story. According to an MQM MNA all the cases against MQM workers were politically motivated. MQM workers, he said, could get justice from courts as they got it earlier. He claimed that MQM workers were not involved in criminal cases. This however was the backdrop in which the House went into session this evening.
On the face of it the evening fracas was sired by a typical routine parliamentary grudge. Ch Nisar, his usual eloquent self, started off by venting his fury at the government, and the speaker for playing party, for manipulating the constitution of the standing committee dealing with the controversial NRO legislation and then ‘stream rolling’ the passage of its committee draft while completely ignoring the opposition viewpoint. He landed quite a few painful punches as he talked about the immorality of the black NRO (who could argue with him on this one, really) and ridiculed the PPP members of the standing committee who had so eagerly voted in a shameful draft of the proposed law. He spoke for a good part of the hour and did a decent job of exposing the ruling party’s untenable stand on a law that envisages nothing but provides cover to crime.
So far so good. But as he sat down, the entire opposition started a strong round of desk thumping and chanting slogans of “Black NRO law, unacceptable”. And while all this was going on, the Sindhi speaking Speaker Fehmida Mirza, whose Urdu is hardly something to write home about, provided the perfect opening when chiding the opposition from raising slogans and breaching decorum she described their action as a “gandi addat” that needed to be ended. It was as if a red rag had been shown to the bull. And hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and a Khwaja Asif rubbed the wrong way.
What followed was a deafening episode of angry outbursts, un-parliamentary remarks and at times unpleasant barbs hurled directly at the Chair. Within moments we were transported back to the 90’s, when such rowdy scenes were a daily occurrence, and we know how all that ended.
About 15-20 minutes later the matters seemed to have reached a boil and just when things appeared to be losing their steam just a trifle bit, in walked the prime minister. The timing for the consensus man, the perpetual peacemaker, could not have been timed any better (coincidence or deliberate?). By then the speaker, acting gracefully and pragmatically, decided to end the matter by withdrawing her remark which appeared to be a case of bad choice of words rather than intent and Ch Nisar also graciously accepted her gesture and appreciated it in a befitting manner and then led the opposition to a boycott of the proceedings to protest the entire NRO and standing committee affair. By the way, a very seasoned and senior journalist opined that ultimately the government will not put the NRO bill to voting in the House and will simply let it disappear into political oblivion otherwise it will itself end up there. But is it already too late for even such a damage control measure, only the coming weeks will tell.
And while the opposition’s tail was still inside the House, the prime minister promised to deal with the NRO issue in the spirit of “consensus” and promised that no such action shall be taken which could “derail democracy, or the system”. Who could he be talking to precisely, because the opposition surely wasn’t listening. It would also be interesting to see whether his passion for such consensus is shared by his party chairman also, or has the prime minister too decided to start foraying a little beyond the pale of his benefactor’s shadow. We are passing through some strange and uncertain times, and frankly anything is possible. Especially so, from someone who has mastered the art of survival through deft politicking, and consensus building.
To be fair to the government, the opposition did not clarify why it made such an issue of the complexion of the law and justice body in the 17th session whereas the committee was elected in the first session. The opposition also did not point out why it was so irked by the presence of a minister in the NRO committee whereas the same minister is also a member of the privileges committee as are many other ministers of many other house committees.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
