Is the Jamaat-i-Islami on a new charm offensive with the election of a new Amir?

At least some read so in the motions that its members raised in the National Assembly soon after the party’s electorate dumped the ‘rigid’ Munawar Hassan for the ‘moderate’ Sirajul Haq.

On April 1, its full strength of four MNAs in the assembly moved a ‘calling attention notice’ on what the party was “a matter of urgent public importance, causing grave concern among the general public”.

It concerned the singing and dancing competition being aired regularly by a private television channel. But the debate that the movers sought on the ‘obscene’ musical programme did not follow.

Under Rule 93 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the National Assembly, the Speaker deals directly with ‘call attention notices’ and rule what constitutes an urgent matter and assign priority to the matters raised accordingly.

So, the next day one of the four, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah, stood up on a point of order to draw the attention of Minister for Information and Broadcasting Parvez Rashid to the ‘improper advertisements’ aired by the television channels. Improperly dressed woman models appearing in the ads were spoiling our Islamic society, he said.

His demand that the government should see the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) took notice of the moral corrupting ads did generate sort of a debate, with the minister advising the JI to teach its supporters how to use the ‘remote control’ in such situations.

In his response to the JI calling attention notice and point of order about the TV programmes and commercials, the information and broadcasting minister Parvez Rashid refused to buy their argument.

“Let’s leave it to the viewers to decide the choice of their programmes,” he said, arguing that it was difficult to have a consensus on the definition of obscenity.

However, the question remained: Did the speaker’s office consider the issue important enough to make it part of business of the day for the house?

Talking to Dawn, a senior official at the parliamentary affairs division, the ministry responsible for preparation of legislative agenda for the two houses, said issues such as calling attention notices and privilege motions were the sole responsibility of the assembly secretariat.

“One may question if the assembly secretariat takes any pains in prioritizing calling attention notices to be taken up in the house, but the exercise belongs entirely to the speaker’s office.”

An official of the National Assembly secretariat said that his office receives, on average, around a dozen calling notices during a session. “The whole list is presented to the speaker who then picks two notices he thinks most important and need urgent attention of the house.”

In the instance of the JI notice, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq identified himself with the view that the TV commercials portraying woman models and the musical programme constituted a matter of urgent public importance.

“One should not be surprised by that. The PML-N lot is innately right-winger,” remarked a media person who has covered national politics for over two decades.

Together, the JI and PML-N walas had worked enthusiastically for the missionary President Gen Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation programme during the 1980s.