For Sindh’s MPAs, much ado about nothing becomes business

The 18th Amendment seems to still be a source of confusion for elected representatives.

KARACHI:

“I really should be running the wheat ministry since wheat is all I deal with, not the rest of food,” quipped Nadir Magsi, the food minister, as he answered questions put forth by his colleagues in the Sindh Assembly on Thursday.

It really is rather odd to imagine that there are two departments – one solely for wheat, as Magsi claims, and the other for agriculture. Is wheat not part of agriculture?

“Well, you have the 18th Amendment now,” Speaker Nisar Khuhro said. “You can change it.”

The 18th Amendment – a groundbreaking piece of legislation that put most departments under the Sindh government’s control – seems to still be a source of confusion for elected representatives. At almost every session this past week, MPAs have asked questions in a bid to understand the 18th Amendment and where the province does, and does not have, control. Even ministers seem rather confused on the actual implementation of this new law and what needs to be done in terms of passing legislation, etc, for the devolved areas of government.

Former food minister MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi and Magsi sparred for a bit over the issue of debt. Jatoi claims the government is using the food department to offset a deficit and push it into circular debt, whereas Magsi and Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah said the issue was merely of outstanding payments. During a discussion on who is responsible for the issues growers face with bardana, Magsi told an MPA, “These are not people from the outside. They are sitting among us.”

There were no fireworks during the session. The most exciting event, perhaps, was when the static of a cell phone that was amplified through a nearby microphone. Khuhro instantly stopped what he was doing to ask, “Who is that?” “Not me!” Magsi, who was answering questions at the time, whipped out his phone to prove it was off and he wasn’t the culprit.

While someone’s phone went unanswered, that did not mean MPAs weren’t heard. Even as Khuhro insisted that there would be limited statements to mark Working Women’s Day, female MPAs clamoured that they be allowed to make speeches. One MPA insisted on her resolution on CNG kits being heard. As an aside, MPAs seem to love resolutions, drafting, presenting and speaking on them. One wonders what the effectiveness of these resolutions is – surely Sindh hasn’t been transformed entirely by the mere force of these resolutions, nor have those alleged to commit crimes been quaking at the thought that the Sindh Assembly has passed a resolution against them.

Not everyone was listening though. MPA Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi had the house and the press gallery giggling when he asked for an amendment in a resolution that had been passed a short while earlier.

There were inspired speeches on the passage of a bill that gives Sindh Madressatul Islam the status of a university, most notably by MPA Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro who quoted Confucius, and MPA Sardar Ahmed who spoke at length about the institution’s history.

Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, who presented the bill, thanked his colleague Law Minister Ayaz Soomro for allowing him to present it because of Haq’s “personal attachment” to the institute’s history. (His grandfather Pir Ilahi Bakhsh, he said, he did not manage to get admission to the school, but was responsible for it during his tenure as the first chief minister of Sindh). “That’s very magnanimous of him,” Speaker Khuhro noted, with perhaps a touch of sarcasm.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2011.