LAHORE, June 29: The Punjab Assembly, like other legislatures, has completed more than one quarter of its term, but most of the lawmakers have still not learnt much about the role they are supposed to play.
They are alien to parliamentary practices and don't know even what is a 'point of order' and when it is to be raised. There are many in the house who use the 'point of order' only to interrupt a speaker, no matter how serious and reasonable his speech.
And, ironically, such hecklers don't sit down even when the speaker rules their points out of order. On many an occasion, the lawmakers stand up without knowing what they have to say.
The speaker helps such people, though reluctantly, asking them if they want to raise a point of order. "Yes", comes the answer and then such people start making a speech which may be categorized as "To whom it may concern". Such people waste valuable time of the house.
They are growing older -- which is mandatory -- but not growing wise, perhaps because it's something optional. There is also no dearth of people who start praising their respective leaders even if there's no occasion for it.
The speaker can render a great service by doing something to train his colleagues in parliamentary practices. Of course, there are honourable exceptions because of which the house is able to conduct its business. But they are certainly in minority.
Those who go off-track also include ministers. For example, on Tuesday, Minister for Agricultural Marketing Qasim Noon went out of the way to shower praise on President Musharraf. He said Gen Musharraf was as indispensable to frustrate conspiracies as the country itself.
He said this when PML-N leader Mujahid Ali Shah criticized the Punjab government for wasteful expenditure during the outgoing fiscal year. A Rs36 billion supplementary budget was under discussion in the house, which all opposition speakers said depicted extravagance and failure of the government to assess its requirements for the year.
While criticizing the lavish expenditure, the leader from Multan started appreciating the administrative and other capabilities of former chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif.
He recalled how difficult it was for the officials to get sanction for any expenditure from the man who ruled the Punjab from 1997 to 1999.This prompted Qasim Noon to say something more forceful about the present leadership.
When he talked of Gen Musharraf's indispensability, another PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah Khan started reviling him. Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari said the minister had not said anything against the country but had mentioned the leadership qualities of Gen Musharraf.
Now it was the turn of an MMA leader to drag the house further away from what it was discussing. "Prime Minister-elect Chaudhry Shujaat says (finance minister) Shaukat Aziz has been nominated for the office of the premier by Gen Musharraf.
What kind of democracy is this?" said Dr Wasim Akhtar. In the meantime, Qasim Noon left his seat to go out in the lobbies. But before he could leave the hall, PPP's Ashraf Khan shouted that Pakistan had survived despite the fact that three previous military rulers Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq had pegged out and it would stay unharmed even in the future.
Another PPP leader Raja Riaz was critical of the nomination of Chaudhry Shujaat Husain for the office of the chief executive. "The nomination of a crippled man for such a high office is a conspiracy against the system", he said.
The ruling party did not waste a moment and came up with a hard-hitting response. "Raja Riaz should be examined for the state of his mental health", said Brig (retd) Akram.
The readers can better judge what these utterances have to do with the supplementary budget. Deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah and PPP leader Rana Aftab said the Rs36 billion supplementary budget did not come up to the definition of the word.
The expenditure was neither urgent, nor unexpected nor unforeseen, the lawyers from Faisalabad argued, urging the house to reject it. Law Minister Raja Basharat opposed the assertion, saying Rs30 billion of the supplementary budget had been raised through better tax collection.
As for the expenditure, he said, it had been made where it was absolutely necessary. The house burst into a laughter when a female parliamentary secretary 'disclosed' that she, the Punjab chief minister and the health minister 'in disguise' visited various hospitals to see how the patients were being treated.
She said the Chaudhry Elahi government had brought about so many reforms that no amount of time would be sufficient to enumerate them all. The parliamentary secretary, however, did not say when and where the visits 'in disguise' had been undertaken nor the observations of the team.
