The BackBencher: New look for Sindh Assembly, but same old ugly mood

New potted plants graced steps, hall had new curtains, there was soft lighting but mood was anything but pleasant.

KARACHI:

The Sindh Assembly sparkled on Monday. Rows of new potted plants graced the steps, the hall had new curtains in a rather lovely shade of mint green, there was soft lighting (perhaps the MPAs will not end up looking so wrinkly in photos now).

But the mood was anything but pleasant.

Indignation simmered on the floor, from the Pakistan Muslim League-F’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi, who was defiant as she told the house that she would not be scared by threatening text messages. She has been warned against pushing for any more resolutions opposing calls for a Mohajir province.

And while the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Humera Alwani normally chats up a storm – so much so that the speaker seems to spend all his time telling her to, “sit down, please sit down, sit down” - her face was blank as she listened to Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed tell the house that his party had not signed the anti-Mohajir province resolution because they weren’t told. Quite tellingly, Alwani did not thump her desk at Ahmed’s speech, given that last Friday she had told reporters she had asked the MQM to sign the resolution and received no response.

Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza attempted to end the discussion on the resolution and why the MQM didn’t sign it, when MQM MPA Heer Ismail Soho began to pipe up, looking to Sardar Ahmed to intervene:

“Sardar saheb…?”

He raised his hand in a dismissive gesture, but Soho continued to rant – her timbre growing more incensed by the syllable – as she pointed out that the MQM was not just a Karachi-based party.

Deputy Speaker Raza scored a point of her own, smilingly saying that while no one was claiming that the MQM was solely a party for Mohajirs, perhaps lawmakers should keep an eye on what’s happening in their own areas.

Question hour on Monday turned into a sparring match between Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah and National Peoples Party’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi. As the two debated gas surcharges and base salaries for government employees, some blown-up photographs became a source of fascination for a row of PPP MPAs.

Murad Ali Shah actually brought up an interesting point when looking at the questions sheet: technically, the MPAs are not supposed to ask questions whose answers are public knowledge. “This is in the budget books that are given to MPAs and are available in the Sindh Assembly library,” he said. “This question shouldn’t even have been forwarded by the secretariat.”

Be careful what you wish for, Mr Shah. Saleem Khursheed Khokhar offered up one of the gems of the year: “Is interest in business correct and should this happen in an Islamic country?” (Kya sood ka karobar karna jaiz hai Islami mulk mai?)

But not everyone felt as if they got their two cents during the session. Later, on Monday afternoon, MQM’s Khwaja Izharul Hassan complained on the micro-blogging website Twitter that Deputy Speaker Raza had not let him speak: “Deputy speaker warned if we raise any public importance issue, she will adjourn session & she did the same.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2012.