Legislative mockery

Kudos to the PTI! It is not often that you hear a politician call the residents of an entire city stupid. It is even less common for a politician to call the whole country ignorant, but here we are. The raised eyebrows had barely settled after Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid referred to Lahoris as jahil, when, not to be one-upped, MNA and parliamentary secretary Andleeb Abbas used the same term for the entire country. Abbas then accused the opposition of destroying the country while their families go abroad. She then, straight-faced, touted the government’s achievements in the health sector, despite the government’s failure to address a literal pandemic in a timely fashion. But there was more to come, as the IBA graduate actually managed to say the economy was stable without spontaneously combusting. There were more claims based on alternative facts throughout her speech, but we lack the space to go through them all.

Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar called out Abbas by repeating the government claims about Covid-19, such as calling it just a flu, discouraging the use of masks, and claiming the disease cannot survive Pakistan’s temperature. Surprisingly, she spared Climate Change Minister Zartaj Gul and her bizarre etymology of Covid-19. Khar also noted Pakistan’s struggles to maintain democratic rule and called on parliamentarians to treat the house seriously instead of damaging the credibility of every member of the house with “ridiculous” comments. She then justly called out the PTI’s economic management skills and foreign policy, before starting a tirade of her own, albeit a slightly less ridiculous one, about the Premier.

Most of the rest of the session was also littered service to the public. But maybe the Senate would be the saving grace? After all, the upper house seats indirectly elected members so they can hold a higher level of debate than the lower house because they got there based on expertise rather than electability. There, we saw members were standing on the benches and yelling at each other.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2020.

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