Ministers make a beeline for Senate leaving NA business View from the Gallery

ISLAMABAD: So focused was the ruling party on filling out ministers’ front row in the Senate on Monday that everyone almost forgot to pay some attention to the National Assembly in session simultaneously, and that too in the adjoining hall of Parliament building. 

On his resuming the office after a verbal threat to resign last Friday over non-presence of ministers in Senate, Chairman Raza Rabbani was the centre of attention and attraction – well deserved in these days of breaking news sensation. The gentleman knows how to attract media attention.

He beamed with more confidence on this day as ministers, mostly junior ones, made a beeline for the Senate front rows under the watchful eyes of Raja Zafarul Haq. The National Assembly was not that lucky. Here, ministers apart, only one third of the whole 220 plus PML-N and allies are a regular feature on any given day. As low as 48 of them were counted present on Monday evening.

How many just punched their presence on this particular day for making sure un-deducted perks and privileges would be an interesting read. Seldom they break the psychological mark of 86 MPs in a sitting these days – required to keep the House in session. Around 91 could be counted on the opening day of this news session last Wednesday, and treasury was lucky enough to abort a lawful disruption of proceedings then. 

Ever since, this is the third day running and PPP is embarrassing them through lack of quorum, after walkouts. Around 78 of them present when PPP legislator pointed out quorum, reduced to mere 47-48 after a break of 20 plus minutes. On Monday too, ministers were hard to find, but the Speaker could not be provoked as PPP’s Ijaz Jhakrani, or for that matter, Naeema Kishwar wanted him to follow in the  footsteps of Raza Rabbani. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq could only shrug such an advice aside, arguing that the ministerial bandwagon is busy in Senate.

A cool, pragmatic custodian of the Lower House is these days more inclined to establish himself as political trouble shooter of the PML-N as he teams up and jells well with this regime ‘s financial Czar, Senator Ishaq Dar.

Opposition fails to invoke any iota of rebellion in Ayaz Sadiq in the climax days of Panama case verdict. Being Premier Sharif’s favourite legislator who was elevated as Speaker as a bounty for defeating PTI leader Imran Khan from a Lahore constituency, the Speaker knows sky is the limit when it comes to securing further elevation. On Monday, he passed on the buck to Deputy Speaker as the quorum was pointed out. Murtaza Abbasi now masters the art of overseeing an abrupt end to proceedings. So he adjourned the session as quickly as possible after a 20 minutes break to lure in treasury MPs failed. 

Earlier, an important discussion on the recent horrific Mardan University killing could not be taken place thoroughly as such serious national issue fell victim to party preferences, goals and hands. Ruling party and ally MPs quickly lost interest as a PPP member pointed out quorum as rest of his colleagues had already gone to the lobby after a usual yet compulsory walkout over missing Zardari sahib aides.

However, Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah had offered yet another fiery sermon on parliamentary affairs, good governance etc. Alas!!! No one takes Mr Shah that seriously in the power corridors. Though it was not a boring speech by Mr Shah and it was a noticeable departure from his usual discourse. He had some valid arguments up his sleeves as he questioned the way parliamentary affairs were being run by the treasury, these days. In fact, parliamentary party meeting of the PML-N is a rare, very rare occurrence. And no MP feels himself answerable to minister in charge, Sheikh Aftab. And attendance issue is taken very casually by ministers and legislators alike. 

On Tuesday, apart from attending the Senate in a compulsory, strict mode, some of them also got engaged in a meeting chaired by the premier. So when the KP chief minister and important cabinet ministers are away to China to bring home some more mega projects, the PML-N gears up to strengthen the provincial chapter, identify developmental schemes that could fetch them the required votes for national and provincial assembly seats. PTI missed more than half of its government tenure, and realised of late the importance of mega projects for the province. And the only quick fix was to have its share in the CPEC grand scheme of things, instead of acting like a spoiler for political reasons – being an opposition to the ruling Sharifs getting lion’s share and credit for the CPEC projects. 

Last year, PTI leaders had finally convinced Imran Khan to let go his rhetoric against mega developmental projects as only reforms in police, land revenue, health and education won’t fetch them the required votes and seats in elections 2018. Hence the Swat motorway, Peshawar metro and a number of infrastructure and power generation projects have been given go ahead. Diplomatic quarters say Imran Khan was all set to undertake a high profile visit to China at the end of this March, but it was cancelled at the last minute as some PTI bigwigs thought Panama case verdict was to be announced around the same dates. It was not to be. But such handling of high profile visits is not taken as an appropriate gesture by host countries. The KP chief minister is however eager to bring Chinese investment, not ready to miss the bus again. All this is at a time when PML-N is trying to focus more on Sindh and KP provinces. PM Sharif having undertaken some whirlwind tours of Sindh in recent weeks, is trying to come up with the right strategy in KP. The meeting at the PM House was attended by all the significant PML-N leaders from the province including Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra. The pick of the meeting was presence of Mariyam Nawaz. Sitting alongside her husband, MP Capt (R) Safdar, her entry in politics is slow paced by design. But everyone in the power corridors realises soon she would be taking important decisions on politics side by side the media management front.