Mirza’s continued outbursts causing problems for Fehmida?

All the ruling coalition partners including the MQM were seemingly in full strength, Tuesday. Obviously, someone had worked overtime to manage such overwhelming presence of treasury members and whispers in the lobbies claimed that availability of members in such considerable strength indicated an obsessive interest in the passage of a bill that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had threatened to block , “even physically.”

The proposed Bill seeks to establish a Defence Housing Authority in Islamabad. Such housing schemes exist all across Pakistan and for long. But the PML-N hawks are resisting its establishment in Islamabad with the clear intent of defeating and frustrating a real estate tycoon of Rawalpindi, who they alleged is a close friend of Asif Ali Zardari.

Without revealing their real intent, the PML-N hawks apparently object to outsourcing of the complex job of land acquisition for the proposed society to the said tycoon. Besides the alleged outsourcing, they also wonder about how an Islamabad-based housing society can acquire almost 60 per cent of the land for it from under the revenue control of the Punjab government. But so the said tycoon’s help in setting up the low cost Ashiana housing scheme in Punjab puts him in close physical proximity of the Punjab CM as well.

Until last evening, there were hopes that thanks to long-drawn negotiations between Chaudhry Nisar Ali and the government interlocutors like Khurshid Shah and Syed Naveed Qamar, Prime Minister Gilani was willing to forget the said bill. Some PML-N hawks also sounded confident in believing that even the ‘ultimate beneficiaries’ of the said scheme were having second thoughts about it. But the Presidency, my sources claim, did not approve the ‘change in plans.’

The controversy that the opposition generated over the appointment of Fasih Bokhari as NAB Chairman was cited as the real cause of “no more appeasement of the PML-N” mood at the presidency. Too clear and loud messages were rather reported to have been sent from there, demanding that all-out efforts must be made to get the much deferred bill passed during the last sitting of the ongoing session.

Although, it was a day reserved for private initiative in legislation, the said bill was put on the day’s agenda. Yet, most government members were found praying that the proposed bill, put as item number 32, did not get the chance to be taken up for voting. Their prayers were answered and it was not.

With or without the intended passage of the said bill, there was another indication that suggested “hardening of the mood at the presidency”. Two very reliable sources told me separately that various senior aides of the President were extremely unhappy this morning after finding out from newspapers that both the speaker and the deputy speaker preferred going abroad while the national assembly was still in session.

“The irresponsible conduct,” I was told, also provided huge space to strike by anti-Zulfikar Mirza lobby. After announcing the intent of fielding his son for a seat of the Sindh Assembly from Badin, Mirza has already forced a dilemma of choice on his party. If the PPP owns Husnain as its candidate, the wagging tongues would have a solid ground to strengthen the claim that Zulfikar Ali Mirza took on the MQM via hysterical theatrics, with a conspiratorial nod from the presidency. By denying the ticket to Husnain, the PPP would not only disown Zulfikar Mirza but his family as well. And as many fear, this would force Speaker Fehmida Mirza, who so far had performed her job in a commendably serene manner commanding respect from opposition benches as well, to make a choice between party and family.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2011.