Losing face: Embarrassing NA session for govt

PML-N calls for the interior minister’s resignation over ‘unbridled’ bloodshed in Karachi.

ISLAMABAD:

Everyone appears to have agreed on embarrassing the government without any discrimination of friends and foes.

After a protest walk-out from the National Assembly by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Tuesday, it was Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) walk-out which generated more heat on Wednesday when it called for the resignation of Interior Minister Rehman Malik for failing to control ‘unbridled’ bloodshed in Karachi.

The demand by PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafiq appeared to be a move to pile up pressure on the government already facing multiple political and economic challenges, though not for its own mistakes.

The demand gained more weight when a veteran from the ranks of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Syed Zafar Ali Shah advised the government to take the situation in Karachi more seriously.

“Why doesn’t the interior minister resign? What formula does he have (now) to control the law and order situation in Karachi,” said Rafiq, who warned the government that it would face more failures if it did not initiate serious attempts to put powerful state institutions under the ambit of the Constitution.

His speech, third in less than a week, bore hallmarks of the PML-N’s recent policy of castigating the military and intelligence agencies for a series of failures.

Saad, whose party is reportedly preparing for a final push to oust the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government at the centre, said the PML-N was fast losing patience.

He said his party was certain there would be no coup even if it launched a campaign to push the PPP administration out of power.

He blamed the government for running the country as its “fiefdom” without considering the welfare of the masses. “Is this the way states are run? No, it is not. It is a very complex situation and we reject it,” Rafiq said regarding the country’s governance.

The government was in for even more embarrassment when MQM’s Khushbakht Shujaat questioned the vision, action plan and strategy in the budget for the next fiscal year. “Many questions are still unanswered,” said the MQM lawmaker.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.