The slap: I am ashamed to be an MPA, says PML-F woman

Her stinging words came in response to a slap that a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Waheeda Shah Bukhari administered to a polling agent. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: I should have come with a helmet on to this assembly session, remarked MPA Marvi Rashdi. “I am ashamed to call myself an MPA.”

Her stinging words came in response to a slap that a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Waheeda Shah Bukhari administered to a polling agent during the by-election in Tando Mohammad Khan a day earlier. Bukhari was elected an MPA but there has been an outcry over her outbreak of violence.

The slap was caught on television and broadcast across the country.

Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza interrupted Rashdi to say that the case has gone to court and an inquiry has been initiated. “You cannot further comment on the issue,” Raza said while signalling to the assembly’s staff to switch off Rashdi’s microphone. A few PPP MPAs stood up to defend their party’s MPA, but they did not get permission to speak. Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Faisal Subzwari said that this kind of thing should be stopped.

Tribute to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

The house unanimously adopted a resolution paying tribute to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for winning an Oscar award for her documentary “Saving Face”. In their resolution they said that the documentary has not only created awareness about this heinous menace, but has won Pakistan its first Oscar Award.

They said that the prime minister has announced the highest civil award for her, but they emphasised that the Sindh government should give her a reception upon her return to Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2012.