Marvi Memon book launch: 'My Parliamentary Diaries' offers insight into assembly workings

Memon's book to be available as an ebook and in print edition.

ISLAMABAD: ‘My Parliamentary Diaries’ authored by former legislator of PML-Q, Marvi Memon, was launched in a ceremony held at a local hotel on Thursday.

Diaries of Marvi for every day spent as Member of Parliament was also published in the form of an e-book. It will be a first for the Pakistani parliament and have the ins and outs in the daily lives of an MNA. It showcases her struggles in parliament, on the road, and in the judiciary.

Marvi’s diary entry on June 21, 2011, 12 hours before her resignation, read, “Most politicians had often claimed the same fix-its. But they had failed to deliver. And they had invariably become part of the problem. What Pakistan wanted we all knew. How we were going to do it would be the make or break. That was another chapter. Another life. There was much work to be done before coming up with the exact strategies to fix it. It couldn’t be taken so lightly.

Sure I had learnt a lot through hands on experience. But I needed to put together a par excellence team which had the best possible solutions for Pakistan’s fix its. It had never been done. We had only seen individual approach to politics. We desperately needed collective leadership excellence. And that life was going to start tomorrow.  Was so excited. I have never been so happy in three years.”

The book is available online and in print.

Watch a slideshow of images from the launch here.

Updated from Print edition (below)

‘My Parliamentary Diaries’: An account of her life as a parliamentarian and her struggles

Marvi Memon’s latest book talks about her life as a parliamentarian and includes an account of her struggles in the parliament, on roads and with the judiciary. The book, “My Parliamentary Diaries”, was launched at a ceremony here on Thursday.

People from all walks of life, including a large number of parliamentarians, researchers, academia and professionals attended the event.

“There is a significant difference between the way I spent March 2008, when I joined the parliament, and June 2011, when I resigned. It seems like an entire lifetime. My priorities changed significantly during this time, and my struggles have transformed my thinking to a great extent,” said Marvi.

She said she wanted to share her experiences inside the parliament and tell people why the country went nose diving to a failed status. “I want people to know where we have gone wrong and how we must work together to save our country,” she said.

Mavri spent 1,192 days in the parliament. “The first year was spent defending President Musharraf and the PML-Q, to whom I owed my reserved seat. During the next two years, however, I stood up for the right thing. There are many policies which I supported initially but challenged them with the passage of time,” she states in her book.

“What is fresh in my mind are the images of people of Tando Bhago being cheated out of their rightful water and a woman in Johi whilst drinking dirty water. The depression of mothers in Balozai, Shishkat and Kot Almo Thatto who lost their houses due to government’s incompetence, the miseries of the young nurses, clerks, lady health workers, OGDCL engineers, NPIW employees, education staff and lecturers who were subjected to tear gas just because they wanted remunerations for their jobs on merit, the shame of individuals who are subjected to rape, karo kari, acid burns, torture, all these things have evolved me,” Marvi Memon states in her book.

PML-N Senior Vice President Javed Hashmi appreciated Marvi’s work; he said Memon during her roughly three-year stay in the parliament had done as much as he had done in the past 30 years. Appreciating Marvi’s work, he said it was time to overthrow the dictators of political parties.

“If the situation in Karachi is not handled through collective wisdom, then Lahore can become the next target of violence,” he claimed.

The diary is freely accessible on the internet (www.marvimemon.com) and comprises daily notes, articles, reports, assembly speeches, assembly committee minutes, photos, Marvi’s paintings and videos.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2011.