The abuse continues

Yesterday’s Punjab Assembly session was delayed for two hours and then postponed after just 15 minutes. The treasury and opposition spent the morning negotiating for the resumption of normal parliamentary service after Monday’s rancorous sitting, but the talks fell apart.

The PPP told the PML-N they would not let proceedings run smoothly until Law Minister Rana Sanaullah apologised. That was never going to happen. Sanaullah not only refused to apologise for his diatribe on the floor of the house, but repeated much of it on television cameras, calling Shaukat Basra of the PPP “shameless” and “one who bites the hand that feeds him”.

The law minister has apparently forgotten that he holds a serious portfolio and is the face of his party in the provincial assembly in the absence of the leader of the house (so, pretty much always). On Monday, he had the excuse that Basra maligned his leader (Shahbaz Sharif) and he could not control his temper. What justification does he have for yesterday’s behaviour?

No wonder the PPP wallas decided to provoke him. The session opened with Opposition Leader Raja Riaz leading a chorus of slogans that included the particular phrase which prompted Sanaullah to launch a volley of abuses a day earlier.

This time he did not fly off the handle, but sat quietly twirling his moustache. Seeing that the PPP-led opposition was hell-bent on disrupting proceedings, Sanaullah walked up to the chair and asked for an adjournment. The speaker promptly obliged and adjourned the session till Friday, which could be the penultimate day of this session.

Ever since crossing over from opposition to treasury, Sanaullah has looked and sounded frustrated. His language is not the sort the Queen of England would approve of. He often seems to forget that he is not an opposition MPA anymore, up against the military-backed Punjab government of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Speaking of which, the PML-Q sat on the fence during this episode, despite being an opposition party and an ally of the PPP in the central government.

Was this election year posturing, or the result of a grievance the PML-Q has with the PPP? The answer to that is not clear, but as the prospect of general elections becomes firmer (the latest rumours have it that a caretaker government will be in place after the next budget), the PML-N and PPP are likely to become more and more desperate.

Like the PPP in the Centre, the PML-N does not have much to show for its four-year rule in Punjab. Crisis after crisis continue to haunt the people of Punjab and the chief minister, who is in charge of no less than 14 departments, appears to spend all his time in last-minute fire-fighting. The running joke in the gallery goes: Where and how does the chief minister hold cabinet meetings? In his bedroom, alone.

Facing elections and squeezed by the rising Tehreek-i-Insaf, the PML-N’s political capital is dwindling. The failure of the chief minister’s signature projects  Sasti Roti, Food Stamps, Yellow Cabs, Danish Schools  has made the Punjab government a liability rather than an asset for the PML-N.

The party must have lost votes due to the sugar, fertiliser and wheat shortages, coupled with the permanent employment ban.

The PPP has perhaps piled on even greater miseries for the people in the last four years. Apart from some legislation to restore the Constitution, they have done little worthy of a positive mention. A moment of reckoning awaits.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2012.