Elected MPAs or playground bullies?

KARACHI:

Beware. If you are going to speak out against the Sindh government or the Pakistan Peoples Party, the MPAs sitting on the treasury benches will laugh, point fingers, gang up against you and try to shut you up.

As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Hafeezuddin Advocate tried to make a point (which he has been trying to do since the first day of the post-budget session), Pakistan Peoples Party’s Nadir Magsi started to laugh, a loud, hoarse laugh which started from the pit of his stomach. This caused the speaker of the assembly, Agha Siraj Durrani, to raise his eyebrows but he let it go. He gave Magsi a look which said, “Let him say what he wants to.” The two men exchanged a smirk and it was done.

The other PPP MPAs, however, did not get Durrani’s subtle message and started to jump over each other in order to defend their party’s honour. Hafeezuddin called the PPP MPAs out on corruption, nepotism, abuse of power and just general bad governance. He said that they should stop with the ‘wadera’ mentality and learn to deal with the situation at hand. Having uttered the word ‘wadera’, Hafeezuddin quickly said he knew many MPAs didn’t like the term but he had no choice and had to use it. He asked the MPAs where the money that was supposed to be spent on the roads was spent - “where did the money for the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway go? You people travel a lot to rural Sindh, shouldn’t you do something to make the roads better?”

To which several PPP MPAs replied in unison: “Kabhi aaen toh, hum aap ko roadain dekhatay hain [Come to rural Sindh and we will show you the roads.]

If anyone heard PPP MPAs talk about the budget or their government, one would be forced to think they live in another world where everyone was happy, educated, never fell sick or had a bad hair day.

There was no response from them when MQM’s Muhammad Hussain said that it was time for Sindh, and Karachi in specific, to fight for more money from the Centre, better development and provincial rights.

The PPP MPAs had nothing to say. Except, of course, comment about what good work they had done.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2014.