Sindh Assembly: Marvi Rashdi berates PPP amid calls of ‘keep quiet’

Murad Ali Shah, Ayaz Soomro and Shazia Marri lead the charge against the PML-F legislator.

KARACHI: Fingers were pointed, barbs were exchanged and voices were raised at the Sindh Assembly on Friday when legislators Murad Ali Shah, the Sindh Finance Minister from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s (PML-F) Marvi Rashdi battled it out.

Rashdi had attempted to highlight the appointment of Shehnaz Mazhar as additional secretary in the education department. Mazhar is married to Senior Education and Literacy Minister Pir Mazharul Haq.

Rashdi noted that a relation of any kind with ministers, advisers and parliamentarians has become a very “lucrative” business, and that the siblings, cousins and wives of ministers are reaping the benefits.  Rashdi alleged that Shehnaz Mazhar was a ‘ghost teacher’ – a term commonly used for teachers who are appointed but don’t do their job - who was rapidly given an out of turn promotion in grade-18 soon after her husband became a minister.

Rashdi said that Shehnaz Mazhar’s appointment was not based on merit. “It made me wonder how she has been given a double promotion and what will be the state of affairs of the education department. We condemn it.”

Khuhro intervened, and told Rashdi that she could not make personal remarks about a legislator. Murad Ali Shah rose to Haq’s defence, and said there was nothing wrong if an officer who was eligible had been appointed on the post, even if she was related to the minister.

Shah called Rashdi as “immature” politician, but when she stood to argue with him, he shouted at her to “keep quiet”.

The PML-F legislator hit back. “Do not use these words again and again; we do not belong to your party and this kind of approach against women will not be tolerated,”

An irked Shah responded to her defiance with a barb: “It is good for you that you don’t belong to our party; otherwise we would have expelled you.”

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ayaz Soomro had tired of the sniping. “Enough is enough; we have tolerated a lot in the name of this coalition,” he said. “PML-F members are sitting on the treasury benches and play the role of the opposition.” He alleged that when PML-F was a coalition partner of Pervez Musharraf, several people related to ministers were appointed to key posts.

The fight continued outside the assembly, where Rashdi hit out at the PPP for “claiming to be democratic” but “could not bear criticism.”  “Will the education minister and his wife now decide the fate of education in their drawing room, is that where notifications will be issued from?”

“We did join the treasury benches because of a message from the president to Pir Pagara to join – not because Pir Pagara asked to be a part of the government,” she said.

Rashdi didn’t spare the ministers. “The law minister does not even know the ABC of law. Today there was a violation of the constitution when people were criticizing the judges’ conduct. I pointed that out; the law minister didn’t even know that.”

“This way that they treat women, this is not Benazir Bhutto’s way of thinking,” lamented PML-F MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi. “This is another way of thinking.” Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri also criticized Rashdi, alleging that she “came into the assembly because of her family connections with the party, not because she is a party worker.”

“Being a relative of a MPA or a minister does not disqualify someone from being appointed to a position,” Marri said, reiterating Shah’s stance. “It is her [Pir Mazharul Haq’s wife] bad luck that she had potential and was qualified.”

“We are trying to teach people politics. These are the same people who have been traitors to democracy, who have said they support the General Headquarters. They may have done so in the past but they cannot do this now,” Marri said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2012.