The Backbencher: MPAs argue about what the PPP really did for Sindh

I couldn’t help but cringe as Memon told Abbasi that several projects were pending because of floods four years ago

KARACHI:

If I had a penny for every time MPAs from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) claim that they have saved Sindh - from the floods, divisions; I would be rich.

While listening to Sharjeel Memon respond to questions from the opposition about why development project proposed and approved of by the PPP in 2008 were still pending, I couldn’t help but cringe as the Sindh information minister, told Nusrat Seher Abbasi that several projects were still incomplete because of the floods four years ago (most of these projects, according to data with MPAs from the opposition were due to be completed in 2010, not later as the minister insisted).

He claimed that this was so because more than 50 per cent of their budget in those five years was spent on flood victims and their rehabilitation. “We built them houses,” he said. “The PPP government also gave all the flood affected families Rs20,000.” He added that  most of the budget was used up during the floods as there was no help from abroad or the federal government. “It was all from Sindh and for Sindh,” said the minister while standing in the front row next to the Chief Minister’s seat.

When Abbasi asked Memon to answer her question directly and not in a roundabout way - speaker Agha Siraj Durrani interrupted to rescue Memon - even Dr Sikandar Mandhro, the parliamentary affairs minister, stood up to support Memon against the opposition. But they had no need to do so as Memon, who came armed with facts and figures, looked like he was spoiling for a fight. His voice grew louder, his body language became more aggressive as he started explaining himself to the PML-F’s MPAs and dared them to ask for more.

Memon’s real bait, however, it seemed was the MQM - from former coalition partner to public enemy number one. As soon as the MQM’s MPAs started asking questions about water, drainage schemes in Khairpur, Karachi and Sukkur - the minister, rudely interrupted and went on to say what he wanted.

As relations between both parties are already quite tense, Memon’s high-handedness did nothing to ease the tension. It seemed that Memon’s behaviour had the desired effect as when the MQM’s Kamran Akhtar started asking the minister about water, infrastructure and sanitation - the situation escalated quickly. Akhtar started talking faster, louder - he started moving his hands and then said some of the most dreaded words in the assembly: “If you don’t like us Mohajirs, just give us a separate province.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2014.