LAHORE, June 28: Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat is one of the competent ministers Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has in his cabinet.
His performance in the Punjab Assembly has always been appreciable. He comes prepared to the house and counters opposition's political onslaught with convincing arguments and logic.
But what he said on Monday in response to deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah Khan's point of order on the murder of his party colleague Binyamin Rizvi and on disallowing the party to hold funeral prayers at Masjid-i-Shuhada was unconvincing. The minister, contrary to his previous record, could not effectively counter opposition's criticism.
Rana Sanaullah, a lawyer by profession, said it was regrettable that the government did not allow the PML-N to hold funeral prayers of the assassinated leader from Phalia at Masjid-i-Shuhada on Sunday.
Similarly, he said the police had failed in its duties by refusing to nominate in the FIR the accused the brother of the victim alleged were responsible for the tragedy. Raja Basharat said that the government had imposed ban on rallies on The Mall and thus there was no justification for it to let the opposition violate the law.
He pointed out that the district governments had earmarked places for such events and nobody would have had any objection if the PML-N had used Minar-i-Pakistan lawns for the purpose.
The question is whether it is fair for the minister to liken a funeral prayers to a political rally. If the minister's argument is accepted then Masjid-i-Shuhada should be banned for funeral prayers for good.
And the restriction should also be applied to other mosques on The Mall. Perhaps the minister will himself realise that his argument holds no water. Equally devoid of logic was his argument that even now the bereaved family may have its point of view about the identity of the accused incorporated through statements during investigations.
If he means that the police had taken the right step by registering an FIR on their own, ignoring the complainant's version, his defence of the police is unjustified. Why the police as a result of their investigations could not exclude the names of the accused wrongfully mentioned in the FIR? Such a course would have satisfied the bereaved family and also saved any innocent person from being implicated.
The minister's admission that the assassinated leader had very good relations with the Chaudhrys and that the deceased leader had never said anything against the Chaudhrys despite the fact that he was in a rival PML faction, doesn't dent opposition's case.
In fact, the government was under greater obligation to go by the complainant's version if relations between Pir Binyamin and the Chaudhrys were as good as the law minister claimed on the floor of the house.
The way Binyamin's body was forcibly taken to his village also came under criticism in the house. Some said that those who deprived the friends and relatives of the murdered leader of an opportunity to have a last look at him must bear in mind the dreadful end of Gen Zia.
The dictator, they recalled, had not allowed the family of Mr Bhutto to have a look at his face after he was hanged on April 4, 1979. And then the same thing happened with him. He was killed in an air crash in August 1988 and there was nothing left for his family to see of him.
Some leaders said that target killings were being carried out to pave the way for winding up the political system. This a serious allegation which the government must take note of. Whose interest will be served if the system is wrapped?
Gen Musharraf, the architect of the present system, will certainly not like to destroy what he built over the past five years. There are elements in the country which don't like to see Gen Musharraf on the scene. They made three attempts on his life, though the general remained unhurt.
All opposition parties staged a walkout to protest at the government's attitude and failure of the police to trace the culprits responsible for murdering Binyamin. This facilitated the passage of the Finance Bill.
Had the opposition been present in the house, they would have opposed the Finance Bill, which would have led to a lively debate, after which it would not been so easy for the treasury benches to pass it. While the opposition legislators were away, the finance minister read all articles one by one and Speaker Afzal Sahi held that "Ayes have it, ayes have it".
