The ties that bind Sindh’s MPAs and Pakistan’s ministers

KARACHI:

When the Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah rose to answer questions in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday, one had to stop and gape at the television screens focusing on him. Was that a tie patterned in country flags around Shah’s neck?

The incongruous tie itself sparked a few questions from a clearly curious speaker, Nisar Khuhro. “Do you wear this tie every day or is this a special occasion?” he said. “I visited the Olympics in Sydney and it was given to me as a souvenir,” Shah remarked proudly. “Since today is question hour I thought I would wear it.”

“Can you share it with me sometime?” Khuhro quipped.

While one of the politicians in Pakistan most well known for his tie collection is Interior Minister Rehman Malik, even Agha Siraj Durrani, the minister for local government, sported a bright yellow tie in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.

The sports department is also apparently flush with money, as Shah highlighted. “We have lots of money if we use it properly,” he said, recalling that he had discovered a revolving fund which is now being used, given to them by the federal ministry.

The minister’s replies made for a rather entertaining question hour. A query on kits for malakhara (traditional wrestling) players left Shah with no option but to reply in minute detail. “There’s no kit. There is a shalwar, which is the player’s personal shalwar. And obviously, they must have underwear too.”

When he was asked why there had not been a malakhra tournament in Umerkot, Shah’s astute observation was that “people don’t even fight in Umarkot.”

Ties weren’t the sole focus for the MPAs. A resolution on the difficulty faced by civil and government servants in collecting pensions prompted Khuhro to ask the MPA moving the resolution, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Mohammad Aleemur Rehman, how old he was. “I’m a child!” he said. But when pressed he revealed that he was 45 years old.

There was also much excitement in the assembly hall when Malala Yusufzai made an appearance. The Sindh Assembly had passed a resolution paying tribute to her and education minister Pir Mazharul Haq had announced a grant of Rs500,000 for the young girl. The information minister Shazia Marri even managed to bring Haq, who had left the assembly briefly, back to the hall while Yusufzai was there.

The young child witnessed the rest of the proceedings, including MPAs critiquing statements made by Nawaz Sharif on a visit to Karachi on Monday and heard about their priorities and appointments. “Sahib has called a meeting,” said Ayaz Soomro, the law minister, to the speaker, referring to President Asif Ali Zardari. Assembly speaker Khuhro was also told that there were a number of things to take care of for events marking the birth anniversary of the late former prime minister and founder of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2012.