| February 4, 2003 | Tuesday | Zul Hijjah 2,1423 |
PPP may lose Senate seats
BESIDES the provincial election commission, a group of independent aspirants for Senate seats are setting some new parliamentary precedents in the province.
KARACHI: As the Sindh assembly continued its debate on law and order for the seventh consecutive day on Monday, the real objective of the treasury benches in initiating the discussion remained shrouded in mystery.
For seven days, one member after another who spoke on the issue had nothing concrete or substantive to offer except to state, in the most cliched terms, that law and order was getting from bad to worse.
If the objective of the debate was to help the government and the administration to arrest the deterioration on the law and order front, the honourable legislators who spoke miserably failed to come up with any practical suggestion. They failed to create the slightest impression that they even understood the ground realities as regards law and order. Every time they were seen mixing up the complaints of police excesses or the police’s shortcomings with the incidence of general crime and terrorist activities.
And if the objective was to make the debate an excuse to help the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-dominated provincial government to gain a larger say in the control of the law-enforcement machinery, the treasury benches were unable to take the discussion in that direction.
At least two speakers — Faisal Sabzwari of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Qaim Ali Shah of the Pakistan People’s Party — expressed their inability to appreciate the aims and objectives of having the discussion. Qaim Ali Shah was right when he said that it would have been better if Sardar Ahmed, on whose initiative the debate started, would have come out with some opening remarks spelling out the aims and objectives of the debate and setting the direction for subsequent discussion.
Even the unassuming and unimpressive leader of the house, Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar, who wound up the debate on Monday evening, had hardly anything to say, not even for the galleries. However, Sardar Ahmed in his speech dropped some hints about the intent behind the debate. A foremost concern of the government seemed to bring in the law-enforcement establishment under its control.
Referring to the new police setup and the law governing it — the Police Ordinance, 2002 —, Sardar Sahib said that his government intended to give it a new touch. According to him, there was a lot of room for improvement in the new law and to bring about this “improvement” his government was busy in framing certain rules.
In fact the new law governing the present law-enforcement setup has left the police quite independent and autonomous, notionally answerable to the provincial political dispensation, but accountable neither to the provincial government nor to the city/district government. And this should be the real point which must be agitating the mind of Sardar Ahmed. How can he, as the home minister, help establish the undisputed writ of his party — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — unless he and his government are given powers to enjoy some control over the police force. There is another traditional reason for it: unless you have the police muscle at your command and disposal, you cannot create the impression of enjoying and exercising political power and administrative authority. And who knows it better than Sardar Sahib himself, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, who has had a chance to be part of the establishment in situations when the police or other law-enforcement agencies were brought into play to tame the political forces which were considered undesirable at some given time.
However, a few members came out with some interesting and thought-provoking observations. Qaim Ali Shah, declaring it a debate without any purpose, said there could not be a consensus since every group in the present coalition had a different agenda to pursue. Opposition leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro thought it was a failure of the entire system governing law and order if the jirgas were brought into action to settle tribal disputes in which several human lives had already been lost. In this regard he specifically mentioned the on-going dispute between the Mahar and Jatoi tribes.
The debate also brought into focus some inherent contradictions within the fragile coalition. When Faisal Sabzwari of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement attributed police excesses to the absence of local people in the force, Irfanullah Marwat of the Sindh Democratic Alliance took exception to the statement, saying that people of other nationalities serving in the Sindh police were also Pakistanis.
As the legislators were discussing law and order, news came in of another bomb blast in Karachi. Faisal Sabzwari reminded that on Saturday some members had demanded the removal of Rangers from Sindh, and whenever there was a demand like this, it was followed by some law and order problem. — Abu Ayesha
The commission had reportedly entertained the nomination papers of Shaheen Sardar Ali, a former NWFP health minister, whose papers were filed by someone else while the polls body refused to accept the papers of Shazia Tehmas, a PPP nominee, who sent her papers by post.
The independents’ group, which has become a threat to the political parties, terms its electioneering a complete success.
Politicians are opposed to their presence in the race. “Horse-trading cannot be masqueraded as basic right,” said a candidate, whose party members have been approached by some wealthy independents.
The commission refused to accept the nomination of Shazia Tehmas on account of her not appearing in person, but on the other hand it entertained the papers of Shaheen Sardar Ali, who is staying abroad.
This bias has caused a resentment in the political circles. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal General Secretary Maulana Gul Naseeb has urged the commission to stop Ms Sardar Ali from contesting the Senate elections.
PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto had allotted a Senate ticket on women reserved seats to Shazia Tehmas. When Shazia reached the election commission premises on Jan 22, to file papers, the commission advised her to bring Supreme Court’s permission as she had failed in bagging a provincial seat reserved for women. Then Ms Tehmas sent her papers by post on Jan 23, but the commission did not entertain, stating that they were “incomplete, received after due date and were not submitted in person”.
Citing rules of Senate Election Act 1975, in a letter (No. F. 12 (33)/2003 — Els (PEC), the commission told her that “every nomination paper shall be delivered by the candidate in person to the returning officer, who shall acknowledge receipt of nomination papers specifying the date and time of receipt”.
But contrary to the same rules, the commission had accepted papers of Ms Sardar Ali in her absence. The election commission is aware of who had filed papers of the former minister.
The PPP has also allotted Senate tickets to another two women— Mrs Meraj Humayun, former chief organiser of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, and Mushtari Begum, a former nominee of the National Awami Party— on women reserved seats for the provincial assembly.
Mrs Humayun, chief executive of an NGO, is a prominent social worker of Peshawar while Mushtari Begum of Akora Khattak is an educationist. Though they are not card-carrying members of the party, the PPP allotted them tickets for their services in their respective fields.
Sources told Dawn that some of the PPP members had opposed the candidature of Syed Qamar Abbas, PPP provincial senior vice-president, and refused to vote him. They had sent an e-mail to Benazir Bhutto to replace him (Abbas) with any other suitable candidate.
After this threat, Ms Bhutto asked Sardar Ali Khan, a former MNA from Pabbi, to file his nomination papers for the Senate seat, and he did to avoid any further cracks in the party.
The sources said that some of the MPAs, who had proposed and seconded PPP candidates on general, technocrats and women seats had already entered into a deal with an independent group. “It is an eyewash to propose and second the PPP candidates,” said a party leader.
Abdul Akbar Khan, PPP parliamentary leader in the House, who is trying to muster support for his party candidates, termed all these accusations against his colleagues baseless.
The tussle between the PPP and its parliamentarians wing came into light when Ms Bhutto made the party subservient to the MPAs and gave them a free-hand to run the affairs. “All the 10 MPAs are united, and if Ms Bhutto takes a disciplinary action against them, they may enbloc join PPP (Sherpao),” said a PPP leader.
If the PPP MPAs act otherwise, it will disturb the opposition alliance in the House, and many others may lose their Senate seats in the elections.