Dead general brings history debate alive for MPAs

General Zia's spectre still looms large on Pakistani politics.

KARACHI:

General Zia-ul Haq may have died 23 years ago but his spectre still looms large on Pakistani politics. On Wednesday, Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq was asked in the Sindh Assembly whether it were true that O’ Level students are being taught from a book in which the dictator has been given a more favourable profile than Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

It was surprising to learn from Haq that an education department committee is working on “set[ting] the record straight” by “deleting anti-democratic material including the [sic] notorious dictator General Zia”. It would also introduce “pro-democracy and anti-dictatorship” lessons in textbooks.

MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi seized on the moment and decided to call Haq on his use of the phrase “notorious dictator”. If Zia-ul Haq was notorious, then why was the government introducing a local government system that was birthed during the general’s time, he asked.

This prompted the minister for local government, Agha Siraj Durrani, to ask, “What’s notorious?”. It was clarified that the reference was to the dictator, and not the system.

Jatoi’s remark served as a reminder that even though the ruling coalition has been discussing local government for two years, it is still a sticky point for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Haq took a jab at the city government, claiming that even though the provincial government had given it Rs10 million every year, it didn’t spend a cent on education. The comment could not have been left unattended and MQM MPA Shoaib Bukhari rose to defend his party’s record. Speaker Nisar Khuhro intervened in time and asked the parties not to squabble.

MPA Saleem Khokhar brought up another issue: why were children of minority faiths not taught their own religion in schools and were taught Ethics instead? While Haq said a proposal to change that would be welcome, Khokhar said everyone should be taught Ethics, not just minorities.

A lecture on Ethics also came from Information Minister Shazia Marri, who pointed out that there allegedly were errors in the reporting of the Sindh Assembly proceedings published in Wednesday’s edition of Dawn, which, according to her, was not ethical. While she declined to name the newspaper, she waved a copy of the paper around for all to see.

The next 20 minutes were occupied by MPA after MPA regurgitating the exact details of the proceedings, skewering newspapers for errors in reporting and Haq presenting a list of journalists who are also employed as government schoolteachers. So much time and effort, and taxpayers’ money spent on a contention that perhaps could have been easily put to bed by one telephone call from the information department to the editor seeking a clarification.

On another note, the MPAs were irritated by Haq when he referred to Sukkur as being a part of “interior Sindh”. They pointed out that it was the third-largest city in the province and not a backwater. If everything but Karachi is interior Sindh, would it not be fair to call Karachi exterior Sindh?

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2011.