Jamali being ignored in speeches and official documents?
By Ashraf Mumtaz
LAHORE, June 22: Is there any member on the treasury benches of the Punjab Assembly who has supported Prime Minister Jamali or appreciated his policies? Perhaps none. And if there's any, he's yet to come out of the veil.
The ruling party's indifference to the prime minister was noticed even by opposition benches on Tuesday. But to the surprise of everyone, nobody tried to negate the impression.
Thus, the prime minister is conspicuous by his absence in all speeches made by legislators - and even the official budget speech of the finance minister. It's a normal practice that members give the credit of various achievements or policy decisions to their leaders - even if they had played no role.
Wednesday was the third day of debate on the budget, but so farno member has made even the remotest reference to the prime minister for any decision taken for the province. Those who spoke showered praise either on President Musharraf or Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
The 'omission', deliberate or inadvertent, was first pointed out by PPP's Samiullah Khan. After going through the budget speech of the Punjab finance minister, he said in the house that credit for all policies had been given to the president and there was no mention of the prime minister.
Unlike the budget speech for the new year, the PPP leader said, the prime minister had been credited for the policies set for the outgoing year. He asked the ruling party if any member could explain factors behind the visible shift.
Before raising the point in the house, he had taken his colleagues on opposition benches for an appropriate response in case there was some nasty reaction from the treasury. A plan was discussed to deal with any likely situation in the house.
But the opposition benches were surprised when there was no reaction which implied that the ruling party agreed with what had been pointed out. PML-N MP from Multan, Mujahid Ali Shah, also raised the point, saying that it was the prime minister, not the president, who was supposed to be the leader in a parliamentary system.
Ruling party's Waris Kallu responded. He said the budget was given by the chief minister's team and the treasury benches always praised him. Also, he said, the ruling party would continue defending the president.
The prime minister is in a difficult position these days. He is not being supported by the party and he can't trust opposition leaders who have been promising him support.
For him it's a tight rope walk. Before giving a serious thought to the support offer made by the opposition parties, the prime minister should bear in mind the fate of Mian Nawaz Sharif who had made such a mistake.
It was in 1993 when opposition was working against then prime minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif. To pull down the PML government the opposition needed then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan's support. Or it needed a strategy to create serious differences between the president and the prime minister so that the former could use his lethal powers against the latter.
Mr Sharif offered Ms Bhutto, then opposition leader, chairmanship of a standing committee of the National Assembly. She immediately accepted it. The policy brought the desired results and within no time the president and the prime minister became sworn enemies.
The president dismissed the assembly, which was subsequently restored by the Supreme Court. However, differences between the president and the premier were so serious that they could not co-exist. The alternative was co-destruction.
The then army chief brokered an agreement between the two, as a result of which both had to quit. If the prime minister is to survive, the only option available to him is win the support of the president and the PML.
A former leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami, who is now with the ruling PML, called the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal a heap of garbage and in return the alliance branded him a shameless turncoat.
Mr Chuhan criticized the religious alliance for shifting its policies. He said the alliance first castigated Gen Musharraf and then supported him. He defended his decision to change loyalty, saying he supported Gen Musharraf because of his policies on Kashmir and nuclear programme.
He said the MMA was opposed to the Kalabagh dam project, but had a different point of view now. Arshad Baggu said it was height of meanness on the part of Mr Chuhan that he was criticising the party with which he remained associated for a long time.
Asghar Gujjar said the NWFP government led by the MMA wanted the construction of Kalabagh dam after consensus among all federating units. Treasury benches supported Mr Chuhan.
Members stood in their seats because of which there was disorder in the house for some time. One member said that the PPP legislators were conscientious as they had resigned from their assembly seats before joining hands with the ruling party.
PPP's Sagheera Islam on Tuesday lashed out at the prevailing system by quoting late Habib Jalib's famous poem against the 1962 constitution given by Ayub Khan. However, she made some changes in a couplet to make it relevant to the situation. For example, where Jalib said "Mein Nahin Manta", she read "Mein Nahin Manti". Some legislators appreciated the change.
