MPAs reminisce about Benazir Bhutto as the year winds down
Khuhro concluded the day’s proceedings and wished assembly members Happy New Year .
KARACHI:
“The ministers are like some long lost friends who have reunited after a very long time,” remarked Sindh Assembly speakers Nisar Khuhro as he glared at the front row of the assembly benches where members of the Sindh cabinet were happily chatting away.
The rebuke managed to quell the ministers briefly, but there was little to focus on. The question and answers session, featuring the Sindh industries department, sparked little interest from MPAs, other than Arif Mustafa Jatoi. After Sindh Industries Minister Abdul Rauf Siddiqui gave a longwinded answer to a question, Jatoi rose with another query, prompting Siddiqui to retort: “I’ve just wrapped up the answers to 20 questions in one and you still have another question?”
The minister finally declared that the “department is alert because of his (Jatoi’s) questions”.
The latest political trend of using disaster terminology filtered into the Sindh Assembly on Friday afternoon, as Siddiqui repeatedly spoke of a “flood of investors” waiting in the wings. At least the use of cricket terms has not made its way to the benches as yet, though that surely cannot be too far away.
Proceedings then turned to a joint resolution presented by several MPAs paying tribute to the late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose death anniversary was on December 27.
Legislators spoke of their personal memories of Bhutto, of her refusal to apologise for her father and of her resolve to lead the party even after the October 18, 2007 blast targeting her convoy and supporters.
MPA Humera Alwani took a not-so-veiled shot at former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as she spoke of politicians who “have to take the support of the martyred at Garhi Khuda Bux as they have no martyrs of their own”, and more directly, at those who were only able to return to Pakistan after exile because of Bhutto’s efforts. MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional recalled how she was campaigning when news of Bhutto’s assassination came in, and how the women gathered began crying hysterically.
The scenes of December 27, 2007 continue to haunt the Sindh Assembly. At almost every session, an MPA will ask for prayers for the Bhuttos – Zulfikar, Nusrat, Benazir, Murtaza and Shahnawaz.
Khuhro concluded the day’s proceedings and wished assembly members Happy New Year and belated Christmas greetings. Minister Agha Siraj Durrani – perhaps as a friendly remark intended for Pir Mazharul Haq - said there was a “new Shah Rukh Khan film being released”. Information Minister Shazia Marri invited Khuhro to join MPAs for a ‘Christmas cake cutting’ they were having later. As I left the assembly, the cake – lifted by two men on account of its large size – was being brought in. Chocolate, with a Christmas tree outlined in green icing, it did look appropriately festive for the belated celebration. One hopes the men ferrying it in also managed to get a slice (or two).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2011.
“The ministers are like some long lost friends who have reunited after a very long time,” remarked Sindh Assembly speakers Nisar Khuhro as he glared at the front row of the assembly benches where members of the Sindh cabinet were happily chatting away.
The rebuke managed to quell the ministers briefly, but there was little to focus on. The question and answers session, featuring the Sindh industries department, sparked little interest from MPAs, other than Arif Mustafa Jatoi. After Sindh Industries Minister Abdul Rauf Siddiqui gave a longwinded answer to a question, Jatoi rose with another query, prompting Siddiqui to retort: “I’ve just wrapped up the answers to 20 questions in one and you still have another question?”
The minister finally declared that the “department is alert because of his (Jatoi’s) questions”.
The latest political trend of using disaster terminology filtered into the Sindh Assembly on Friday afternoon, as Siddiqui repeatedly spoke of a “flood of investors” waiting in the wings. At least the use of cricket terms has not made its way to the benches as yet, though that surely cannot be too far away.
Proceedings then turned to a joint resolution presented by several MPAs paying tribute to the late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose death anniversary was on December 27.
Legislators spoke of their personal memories of Bhutto, of her refusal to apologise for her father and of her resolve to lead the party even after the October 18, 2007 blast targeting her convoy and supporters.
MPA Humera Alwani took a not-so-veiled shot at former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as she spoke of politicians who “have to take the support of the martyred at Garhi Khuda Bux as they have no martyrs of their own”, and more directly, at those who were only able to return to Pakistan after exile because of Bhutto’s efforts. MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional recalled how she was campaigning when news of Bhutto’s assassination came in, and how the women gathered began crying hysterically.
The scenes of December 27, 2007 continue to haunt the Sindh Assembly. At almost every session, an MPA will ask for prayers for the Bhuttos – Zulfikar, Nusrat, Benazir, Murtaza and Shahnawaz.
Khuhro concluded the day’s proceedings and wished assembly members Happy New Year and belated Christmas greetings. Minister Agha Siraj Durrani – perhaps as a friendly remark intended for Pir Mazharul Haq - said there was a “new Shah Rukh Khan film being released”. Information Minister Shazia Marri invited Khuhro to join MPAs for a ‘Christmas cake cutting’ they were having later. As I left the assembly, the cake – lifted by two men on account of its large size – was being brought in. Chocolate, with a Christmas tree outlined in green icing, it did look appropriately festive for the belated celebration. One hopes the men ferrying it in also managed to get a slice (or two).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2011.