ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly met on Wednesday to discuss the electricity shortage in the country. But as Khawaja Asif briefed the house over his ministry’s performance, incensed opposition members heckled him relentlessly.

But not one to back down, Mr Asif took to responding to the opposition’s jibes in traditional Sialkoti style, turning the verbal battle in the National Assembly into a Punjabi VS Urdu-speaking showdown.

The minister admonished lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) for raising a fuss over loadshedding, while “not teaching to their constituents who are involved in electricity theft cases.”

“These people are ready to lecture the world on morality, but do not care that there are (power) thieves sitting in their own homes,” the minister said, in Punjabi, referring to the opposition.

But as he went on to narrate the percentage of electricity theft in PPP leaders’ constituencies in Sindh and PTI leaders’ constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr Asif was peppered with sarcastic remarks from the opposition benches.

During his ‘account-taking’, he was called “a meter-reader” and other colloquial pejoratives by the sneering opposition members.

Again, when Mr Asif turned his guns towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and accused him of not allowing the water and power ministry to lay a transmission line in his home constituency of Nowshera, the opposition taunted him, calling him “minister for loadshedding”.

Members of the treasury benches also came to his aid. Junior minister Abid Sher Ali and PML-N leader Mian Abdul Mannan, who were sitting nearby, took some shots at the opposition benches, prompting Mr Asif to utter, in Punjabi, “Don’t worry, I can handle them myself.”

Recalling old power contracts, which he said were the main reason for electricity mismanagement in Karachi and the rest of Sindh, Mr Asif scoffed at Syed Khursheed Shah, saying, “I hope my friends on the opposition benches know who the real beneficiaries of these shadowy deals with private power producers are.”

When opposition benches criticised the power minister for going into minute details of fuel consumption by the power sector, Mr Asif retorted, “I am willing to school you further if you need more details.”

Responding to the power minister’s hard-hitting remarks, Mr Shah said Mr Asif should leave point-scoring for another in respect of those who had lost their lives in Sindh due to excessive heat. However, it was PTI’s Asad Umar and MQM Rashid Godil who, quite literally, gave Mr Asif a taste of his own medicine.

In a charged speech, Mr Godil said the PML-N was known for backstabbing and said that was what it was doing with the people of Karachi. Referring to 1992 operation against the MQM during PML-N rule, Mr Godil said the MQM was ready to face the ruling party again.

Mr Umar from the PTI used Mr Asif’s own cathphrase against him when he said the minister would care about the people who were dying if he had any shame or modesty, recalling Mr Asif’s own words that he used to describe PTI lawmakers who returned to parliament after an extended absence.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2015

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