Folly of provoking an enraged bull to tear one apart

Nusrat Javeed

I cannot translate and explain the intensity and beauty of an Urdu proverb which pitiably laughs at the person who foolishly provokes an enraged bull to tear him or her apart. Without anyone’s asking Syed Khurshid Shah seemed committing the same kind of avoidable audacity during the question hour of national assembly Monday evening.

Taking questions related to furnishing caring services to Hajis, he deliberately volunteered ‘information’ that the government felt confident in providing adequate services to the pilgrims during this season. The fee it collects from intending pilgrims is deposited in banks. They have started paying increased ‘interest’ on these deposits, thus facilitating the ministry of religious affairs to spend more for the comfort of Hajis.

No hardcore Mullah was present in the house, when the Syed from Sukkur revealed this unsolicited information. Instead of letting it pass just like that, Rashid Gondal, a member representing the self-proclaimed party of urban-based ‘liberals,’ the MQM, asked for the floor, however, and loudly wondered whether the pilgrims to Makkah should be taken care of via spending from funds amassed through interest.

Shah was visibly stumped by a deadly bouncer coming from an allied party.

He, however, proved lucky in the end; for, the Moezzin called for Maghreb prayer to adjourn the proceedings.

There was nothing much to report about these proceedings anyway, which went on without an engaging agenda. The house remained half-deserted throughout the sitting. It rather looked doubly desolate for the absence of the PML-N heavyweights. Most of them were reported to have gone to Lahore to participate in meetings summoned by Nawaz Sharif to ponder over ‘the messages’ that the government had conveyed through Khurshid Shah during last week.

Ishaq Dar had been selected to carry the said message and his selection continues to compel many to speculate in Islamabad that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is no more the messenger you should approach for negotiating serious business with Nawaz Sharif. I have doubts.

Both Nisar and Dar keep playing the role of good and bad cops.

The house also looked deserted due to the absence of ANP legislators.

They had decided to stay away from the government and its business to express the ire triggered by the PPP for presumably conceding to whatever the MQM had been asking for restoring the local governments in Sindh.

Funnily, the much-hyped Ordinance that caused the said fury is yet not accessible to public as a duly issued document, but opposition to its speculated clauses remains intense and strident. The PPP does not seem too perturbed about it. After listening to some from within the ANP ranks I could figure out as to why. Three ANP insiders separately told me Monday that a peculiar group from their ranks had gradually begun loudly complaining that Shahi Syed’s growing clout had been reducing this party of Pushtun nationalists to Karachi-centric issues. It is time to prepare for the next election anyway and the ANP needs to stay put in both the federal and the provincial governments to dole out patronage to its constituents.

After returning from a visit to Norway, the federal minister of information kept defending and explaining the patronage of a different kind. Equipped with fat volumes of the budgetary books, Qamarzaman Kaira strained his vocal cords for more than an hour to make reporters understand that the ministry of information had no funds for ‘media buying’. The accumulated amount of the ‘secret funds’ at its disposal was rather laughably paltry and insufficient. Kaira was surely too late in dispelling the perception of media buying by the government.

It all started with the coming out of a video recording that captured “off camera” comments and behavior of a real estate tycoon and two anchors during recording of scandal-stirring interview. To provide some content to insidious whispers against our media persons, the Facebook jihadis of a peculiar political party pretending a zealous commitment to ‘change’ feverishly promoted a so-called ‘list’ that gave names, presumably in the pay of a manipulative tycoon. The dust had still not settled when Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also came out with his own set of allegations against media persons. Most journalists since then are enduring guilt pangs. They feel as if being considered ‘corrupt’ until proven innocent. Malik Riaz and Arsalan Iftikhar, meantime, are enjoying life in spite of hurling deadly allegations against each other. The Supreme Court had stopped the NAB to probe Arsalan; the issue was passed on to Dr Shoaib Suddle and Malik Riaz now intends to express distrust for him before the Supreme Court. Only the journalists continue to stay put in the dock to defend their community.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2012.