A day of disagreements and walkouts

IT was a day of walkouts on Monday at the National Assembly. First it was Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s turn, a ruling alliance partner. An MNA from Karachi, Kunwar Khalid Yunus led the walkout when the Speaker ruled his privilege motion out of order.

The MMA was next. The religious alliance walked out, led by its leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman, when the Speaker allowed federal minister for interior Faisal Saleh Hayat a week’s time to collect information on a privilege motion moved by three Fata members who claimed that they were kidnapped and kept forcibly in the NWFP governor’s house.

The PPP followed, after its leader Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, MNA from Multan, taking the floor had expressed his party’s total agreement with the position taken by the MMA on the privilege motion.

Next, it was the turn of PML-N’s parliamentary leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, MNA from Lahore, to speak in support of the MMA’s position and then lead his party out of the house.

The MQM walkout was an indication that there was a lack of understanding between the two major alliance partners. They could have sorted the matter out with the information minister Shiekh Rashid, outside the house.

By raising the issue in the NA and that too through a privilege motion the MQM seemed to have wanted to embarrass its senior partner for some undisclosed reasons.

On the other hand, the walkouts by the three major opposition parties on a single issue, despite the fact that they have yet to agree on a name for the slot of the leader of the opposition, showed a kind of mature coherence within their ranks.

The three do differ on ideological issues. The MMA and PML-N enjoy a sort of affinity; not the PPP. Still, the three seem to be making an effort to take a coherent stand on issue-to-issue basis from the opposition benches.

The government clearly appeared to be on a weak wicket on the privilege motion moved by the three Fata MNAs. First, it tried to confuse the issue and diffuse its impact by getting the six Fata MNAs on its side to move, as a tit-for-tat and as an afterthought, a privilege motion alleging that they were kidnapped and kept forcibly confined in chief minister’s house.

Then the speaker extended a helping hand to the government by ruling that he had clubbed the two privilege motions. But the MMA vehemently objected to this.

Interestingly, while interior minister agreed with the Speaker’s ruling, his Patriot colleague Sher Afgan Niazi spoke in support of the MMA’s contention. This showed the degree of incoherence from which the Patriots themselves seem to be suffering.

Perhaps piqued by Sher Afgan’s breaking of ranks or perhaps he was playing “Caesar’s wife”, the interior minister protested vehemently against some remarks made by Shah Mehmood Qureshi about the his failure to get the required information from the NWFP even after five days since the three Fata members had submitted their privilege motion. In the heat of the argument the minister threatened to expose the inefficiencies of those who had accused him of such a slip. By the time he finished his speech he had become quite emotional.

Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain seemed to be getting his grip on the House. The proceedings on Monday started almost on time. During the question hour he very firmly enforced his writ and did not allow more than three supplementary questions. He pre-empted all efforts at unnecessary filibuster by refusing to allow the members to speak on points of order that did not accord to the rules of business.

He has started recognizing the members and allowing them to take the floor in an orderly and balanced manner. Much of this order was the result of an agreement reached with the parliamentary leaders on various contentious issues at the house advisory committee meeting which the Speaker had convened before the start of Monday’s session. And he was making good use of the computer as well.

Somehow, the women MNAs could not make their presence felt as they failed to catch the Speaker’s eye and that of the computer. PPP’s Nahid Khan and Sherry Rehman had to call out loud to get his attention. Nahid Khan did manage to get the floor and make a mark by her short-but-precise comment on the issue of LFO and the prime minister’s pronouncement that he was beholden to the president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Shiekh Rashid for his elevation to the office of the PM.

For a few minutes it appeared as if the House proceedings would degenerate in a shouting match over the LFO as opposition members, led by Naveed Qamar of the PPP and Maulana Fazalur Rehman of the MMA, wanted the Speaker to announce his ruling on the question of the LFO which he had reserved in the first session. However, on the Speaker’s pleading the opposition allowed him to proceed with the business of the day, which remained unfinished because of the walkouts.