| November 30, 2002 | Saturday | Ramazan 24, 1423 |
The cyclical nature of history: VIEW FROM GALLERY
FOR the third time since the coming into being of the MMA-led NWFP Assembly, Fateha was offered for a departed soul — not a happy note to begin its session on.
The Friday session was exclusively convened for the ascertainment of the leader of the house, but it began by praying for the soul of a veteran Jamaat-i-Islami parliamentarian, Dr Mohammad Yaqub. How right was former speaker Hidayatullah Khan Chamkani, who, on a point of order raised by a woman member of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the last session, had asked them to pray for all the souls once and for all.
His suggestion apparently did not dampen the spirit of an MMA MPA, who while eulogizing the service of the late JI MPA from Dir, asked the house to not only offer special prayers but also hold a special reference in his memory. May Allah bless his soul. Dr Yaqub was a respected and seasoned parliamentarian. He was soft-spoken and never had he raised his voice. At times, he would speak in such a low-key tone that he could barely be heard. A sharp contrast to the band of the new MPAs, who want to be heard by all and sundry, no matter what.
And for another day, Hafiz Akhtar Ali, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam MPA from Mardan, rose to call for the Friday prayers. His eyes fixed on the clock in front of him, he merely needed a nudge to stand up and call for prayers while the proceedings were on and the members were showering praise on the newly-elected leader of the house. In all innocence, he nodded in the affirmative when someone from the press corps signalled him to do so, took off his shoes and began.
It was a day for the MMA MPAs to move on from the now-customary prayers for the dead to more mundane issues. Friday was the day when the NWFP Assembly was to ascertain the leader of the house. And it was, therefore, not for nothing that the JUI-F chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had graced the visitors’ gallery. His nominee, Akram Durrani, was soon to be elected leader of the house.
As expected, Durrani won by a handsome margin, getting votes of 78 of the 119 members present. The five independent members, five of PML (Nawaz) and the lone Tehrik-i-Insaf and Swabi Qaumi Mahaz MPAs supported him. The PML (Quaid-i-Azam) nominee, Qalandar Lodhi, supported by the Awami National Party, People’s Party Parliamentarians and PPP (Sherpao), received 41 votes. Speaker Bakht Jahan announced the results amid chants of Allah-o-Akbar in the house and in the visitors’ gallery.
Then came the grand occasion we all had been waiting for so keenly. The ‘policy statement’ of the leader of the house. Durrani started off assuring the members of equal treatment, pledging to improve the law and order situation, health and education facilities, revive sick and closed industrial units and enforce the recommendations contained in the final report of the Council of Islamic Ideology.
He praised Maulana Mufti Mahmood, freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Muslim League leader Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan. He also mentioned the names of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Sajid Mir and Allama Sajid Naqvi. He was trying being accommodative.
Then came the turn of a piece of paper, thrown in from the visitors’ gallery and taken to him by an MMA member sitting below. “Liquor and gambling dens be closed down,” he declared, knowing that both had been banned by none other than the late PPP chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As if this was not enough, Durrani had more announcements to make to enforce Shariat in the NWFP. No music and no videos in public transport, he announced. Also, he said, passengers could call the police if drivers refused to stop for prayers. That means all commercial traffic will come to a standstill five times a day. Women, he went on to say, would have separate enclosures and waiting areas and separate places for ablution, as if those did not exist before. What a great a start! The Islamic revolution, that we had been promised, has finally come to the NWFP. The rest of Pakistan need not worry about us.
The speaker was all praise for the members who, he said, fully cooperated in smooth running of the assembly. Why shouldn’t he. Nobody asked why the president and not the governor requisitioned the special sitting of the provincial assembly under Article 130 of the Constitution to ascertain the leader of the house. Governor Iftikhar has taken the oath under the Constitution and, therefore, he and not the president is required under Article 130 to requisition the house for the purpose.
But then who cares. The MMA, which opposes the Legal Framework Order, has had no qualms about taking the oath under the same amended constitution. The speaker did not hesitate for a moment before reading out the special requisition order of the president. It’s all right as long as it suits their purpose, why squabble over petty constitutional matters.
The inevitable happened and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was elected as chief minister of the Punjab. His elevation was reminiscent of that of his former leader, Nawaz Sharif, who had also used his connections in the powerful military establishment for first propping himself as chief minister, and later as prime minister. He remained in power till falling out with his benefactors.
With the kind of majority the PML-Q and its allies in the GNA enjoyed in the assembly, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected leader of the House.
For many, another democratic era has dawned in Punjab after the election of Chaudhry Pervaiz as chief minister, but for others, it is not the promised dawn as the assemblies continue to exist in the shadow of military.
Call the “new” era what you like, it is like a dream come true for Chaudhry Pervaiz who has been craving for this office for the last 17 years. It was in the Punjab Assembly created through partyless election held by Gen Ziaul Haq in 1985, where he first tried to foment a revolt against the then chief minister Nawaz Sharif with the blessings of the Pir of Pagaro and the Makhdoom of Rahimyar Khan. He failed.
Following that episode, although Nawaz Sharif kept him and his cousin Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain with him for political reasons, he never trusted them again. The two Chaudhrys from Gujrat proved his suspicions right when they parted company with him after his overthrow by the military on Oct 12, 1999, to form the PML-Q which was to be later nicknamed as the king’s party.
They used their erstwhile friends in the establishment as well as the political ties to dominate the politics of the Punjab. The new situation was like a windfall for them. They knew that it was the last chance for them to make it to the Chief Minister’s House. They did what they could to serve their patrons and achieve their goal.
Despite the fact that his PML-Q and its allies in the assembly enjoyed a comfortable majority, his election as the leader of the House was marred by allegations of horse-trading.
The way state resources and machinery were used, as alleged by the opposition, to twist the arms of some members of the opposition to get their loyalties marred his election. He did not need to go too far to seek help from the Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians (Patriots) and instigate a rebellion in the PPP in Punjab a la the National Assembly.
But the fact that he did so made the whole process suspect. It is anything but the clean politics promised by the President.
The PML-N leader in the House, Rana Sanaullah Khan, pointed out just minutes before the House was to ascertain its leader: “After election of the PML-Q speaker it was a foregone conclusion that Chaudhry Pervaiz will get elected as chief minister. It will not matter to him if he gets 238 or 243 votes. We decided to take part in the process just for the sake of democracy and impart grace to his election. Now I urge him to stand up to tell the turncoats that he does not require their support. It’ll give credibility to the process.”
However, his call fell on dumb ears. Nobody cared a fig for what he said.
Although the spectre of the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) is likely to haunt the assemblies for a long time to come, the legislators are quite well aware of the fact that the new assemblies are a product of the same LFO they have been opposing, which is there to stay at least for the time being no matter what they think and what they say about it.
Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, who led the first walkout of the opposition from the assembly on Wednesday before the election of Speaker as a mark of protest against the LFO, again rose on Friday to point out that under Article 109 of the 1973 Constitution, the president could not convene the assembly. It was a prerogative of the governor to convene or prorogue the House. He called the session “illegal and unconstitutional”. However, nobody from the opposition benches stood up to support him this time despite the fact that all of them had taken oath on presiding officer’s assurance that it was being done under the 1973 constitution. They had also followed him out of the House only a day before to protest against the fact that copies of the constitution provided to them contained LFO as part of the document. Perhaps, everyone present in the House feared that he or she would lose the seat if the issue was pressed beyond a certain limit. It suits them to stay in the assemblies created under the LFO and keep raising feeble protests and voices against it. After all, all of them have pledged to save democracy from another shock.
One wonders what the new democratic dispensation that every member — whether from the treasury benches or from the opposition — is so eager to save, has in store for the hapless people of the province? Not much. The poor victims of the infamous cooperative scam, who lost Rs13 billion in 1991, have had at least three assemblies and as many chief ministers promise them return of their money. Many have passed away. Others have lost hope, if they ever had any. Although, the NAB has paid back a few million rupees to them, nobody expects full payment. Same is the case with those who lost their money in the Taj Company scandal. For people, it will be like building castles in the air if they hope that the new government — no matter if it is created under the LFO or the Constitution — would have any more success in this regard. — Nasir Jamal