The BackBencher: Slumber party in the Sindh Assembly for seven hours

KARACHI:

How does one capture a wandering MPA’s attention? Sometimes it is an angry speech, courtesy Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ayaz Soomro, outrage, via Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed or a good old fashioned rebuke by Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro.

For an assembly that invokes the damages caused by the flooding and excessive rainfall in Sindh at every opportune moment, a rather interesting series of questions on the Left-Bank Outfall Drain went ignored. Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Khan Dharejo, who was answering questions about water resources, could have been reciting a laundry list for all anyone cared. Khuhro asked the MPAs to be attentive, then the press gallery, whose members were far too busy trying to sort out arrangements to cover Malik’s briefing.

For the MPAs, water was far less alluring than, let’s say, a Bollywood song-and-dance on an iPad. The attention was on the screens and cables being placed by assembly staff for the briefing by Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the investigation of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. For what it’s worth, even the much-invoked Bhutto couldn’t get much attention from MPAs. While some looked riveted, others were about ready for an afternoon nap.

Soomro’s angry speech, spurred by an article in the Awam ki Awaz newspaper that quoted PML-Q MPA Shaharyar Mahar as accusing him of conspiring to divide Sindh, was met by the usual volley of thumping desks. “Politicians should go join the world of films,” Soomro thundered as he tried to clear himself of the accusation.

But for all his bluster, Soomro still came off as entirely unconvincing. The MPAs who oppose proposed legislation that deals with the creation of new provinces, presented in the National Assembly by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, sneered as Soomro spoke. This has been a public relations victory for the nationalists in the assembly.

But they, too, came in for criticism. “This is not an assembly of waderas!” shouted MPA Rafique Engineer. “We were not born with golden spoons in our mouth,” an apparent jab at the Jatois, who have been leading the opposition to the MQM’s proposed legislation.

While that statement in itself could draw lots of laughter from within the PPP who has a fair share of landowners in its midst, there was little to laugh about.

Like any good schoolyard fight, MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi told Soomro he would “respond to him outside”. Soomro, not to be left behind, said he’d see him there.

There was no kung-fu fighting outside the assembly though. The weary lawmakers left after sitting for seven straight hours and few could exercise their questioning skills for Malik and his investigation team.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2012.