Behind double-locked doors, Sindh MPAs list expensive cars

Lawyers protesting outside assembly gates disrupt start of Monday's session.

It was supposed to be just another assembly session. The MPAs would come in, step out for a cup of tea and catch up, talk about the budget and leave.

Things did not, however, go according to plan. Around 11:30am, the assembly's security staff was running around frantically trying to lock up all the entrances to the assembly. The gates were padlocked, the doors were double locked.

Policemen and other security officials were busy trying to keep the lawyers out. They were running around screaming, "Are they here? Are they here yet? How about now?"



Disgruntled members of the Malir and Karachi bar associations were marching to the assembly from the high court to protest the target killings of lawyers. The protest which was supposed to be peaceful got a little out of hand when none of the MPAs came outside to talk to the lawyers.

Some of the lawyers became really agitated and started climbing the assembly's gate. Eventually, Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro had to give in and hear them out.

Information minister Sharjeel Memon also had to face a similar situation. He was asked by the journalists to come up to the second-floor press gallery and talk to a journalist who had been injured on assignment. Once, he got there, Memon was surrounded by television and print reporters, photographers and cameramen. He stood there, waiting for the photographers to get a clear shot of him talking to journalists and looking at their list of grievances.

After 15 minutes, Memon returned to his seat next to Khuhro on the treasury benches to participate in the post-budget discussion.

For members of the Pakistan Peoples Party government, the budget discussion turned ugly as the opposition started pointing fingers at mismanaged funds, official appointments and the fact that the party couldn't even give the people of Sindh a glass of clean water to drink.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional's Nusrat Sehar Abbasi went through the budget documents with a fine comb. She picked out numbers and footnotes, which she felt would go unnoticed. "Where is the money? Where did it go?" she asked. "Whoever made the budget or compiled this document probably thought the MPAs are too lazy or won't read it. Well, they were wrong." She added that, while the print was small and she had to use her reading glasses, she did manage to read the budget booklet.

Abbasi was also upset about the fact that the House had jumped to a post-budget discussion whereas, according to the assembly's laws, there should have been a pre-budget discussion first.

She then took on the provincial ministers for their extravagance. "The chief minister spends more than a billion on cars and then other ministers also make similar requests," she said. "Most of the department's budget ends up on acquiring the latest and most expensive vehicles. She pointed at Nisar Khuhro. "Oh minister sahib, I have an article which says you asked for a new car as well. If you don't believe me, I can show it to you."

An MPA from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement voiced his opinion as well. He asked the coalition partners, how they managed to spend so much money and not get any work done. "Did you have Aladdin's lamp? Or maybe a magic wand that just kept giving you the required funds and more?"

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2014.