Killing of adjournment motions in cold blood

Opposition primarily pushes govt to embarrassingly tight corners through actively participating in the question hour.

Most people sitting on the opposition benches in this assembly do not want to appear being “friendly” and thus almost managed. They want to make breaking news and flood our 24/7 channels with sensational tickers by generating dynamic discussions in the house. One has no issue with their desires, but the cold reality remains that the number-strong opposition in this assembly miserably lacks the vigor, creativity and above all the parliamentary skills to achieve what it wants.

The opposition in any parliament of the world primarily pushes the government to embarrassingly tight corners through actively participating in the question hour. After posting mostly drab questions on trivial matters, the opposition legislators hardly come to the house to spice up issues they really want to highlight.

“Adjournment motion” is another very effective tool that the opposition exploits to furnish the looks of vivacity to parliamentary business. Hardly an adjournment motion that the opposition has been sending to the assembly secretariat could qualify to come to the house, purely on solid technical grounds. Calling-attention notices and points of (dis)orders remain the exclusive tools that the opposition has been using to tell its story.

Dr Nafisa Shah of the PPP is a studious and diligent type, no doubt. Yet, she did not sound so convincing while agitatedly wondering in the national assembly Thursday as to why the government felt shy to name the country that had discreetly passed on a huge sum of one and a half billion US dollars to its kitty while talking about it in a “sovereign house, which must be told but the whole truth.”

Ms Shah did not sound justified, simply for the reason that only the other day Ishaq Dar himself had volunteered an exhaustive ‘policy statement.’ He might not have named Saudi Arabia, but speaking on and on he clearly confirmed that the money had come from that country. Ms Shah was still pressing that the Speaker must take up an adjournment motion, posted by here around two weeks ago, to facilitate naming names. Doing so, she eventually switched to incite her comrades to protest against the practice of killing adjournment motions in the assembly secretariat.

The lead PPP players did not appear so motivated to stand by her. Dr Shirin Mazari of the PTI smartly spotted an opportunity for her leader in the confusion. Imran Khan asked for the mike and instead of focusing on the issue of adjournment motions’ perpetual killing by the Speaker’s office, preferred to drum his favorite theme: national honor etc.

After objecting to generous licensing for killing birds in Pakistan to our friends from the Gulf countries, he came to the Saudi money and casually expressed the fear that it might fuel the sectarian tensions in Pakistan. Instead of explaining as to how the Saudi funds could fuel a dangerous trend in this country, the PTI leader then switched to protest over what had happened to Sheikh Rashid Ahmad when he tried to board a plane to Canada. The Immigration Desk did not let him board the plane for his name was included among the list of persons that the US does not want passing from its air space.

Imran Khan created space for Sheikh Rashid with his speech and briefly touching on all possible issues under the sun in a desultory manner, he took the PPP and PTI legislators out of the house in protest. The MQM legislators did not join the opposition; so did the representatives from the rest of non-government parties.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2014.