LAHORE , Oct 6: Getting married has become a serious problem, especially for the educated girls. Female population is more than male’s, as a result of which many girls don’t get life-partners, leave alone their ideal ones.

However, the situation for boys is a bit different. An educated boy can get a bride of his choice without much difficulty.

But the members of the Punjab Assembly were astonished to hear on Friday that an unnamed minister was so impatient to marry that he had given an advertisement in a Multan newspaper inviting offers from suitable candidates.

The ad was brought to the house by a woman-MPA of the PML-N, but she had handed it over to a male colleague who read it to the house.

The minister in search of a soul-mate is a 27-year-old Syed, educated in London, owning urban property and agricultural lands.

After reading the ad to the house, back-bencher Mehr Ishtiaq handed it over to his parliamentary party leader Rana Sanaullah Khan, whose seat is in the front row of the opposition benches.

While PPP MPAs Farzana Raja, Faiza Malik, Azma Bukhari and others were laughing uncontrollably, hiding their faces behind some papers, those more curious converged on the seat of Rana Sanaullah to see for themselves the ad which reflected the richness of the minister and at the same time his “helplessness” in real life.

Senior PPP leader Syed Nazim Shah, a witty leader from Multan, enjoyed reading the text. Others who read it stood in disbelief. It was hard for them to imagine that a minister of what is now known to be “Parha Likha Punjab” had to come up with an ad to get married.

The matter remained under discussion even after the speaker adjourned the session for Monday.

“If your father is poor, it’s your luck; but if your father-in-law is poor, it is your stupidity”, said one legislator, speculating on the condition set by the minister that his would-be-bride should be of equal standing.

He said the minister being such a rich man would, of course, like to pick up a wife from a resourceful family.

Others were of the opinion that the minister should not take a hasty decision, and instead learn a lesson from his seniors who knew better what a married life actually meant.

One of them recalled the story of two close friends. One was married and the other was still in search of someone who could be his life-partner. While he was in the process of finding one, his friend died. The death was catastrophic as the friend lost the dearest man he could share his secrets with.

As the period of mourning was over, the widow decided to marry the friend of her late husband. The man agreed out of respect for his friend.

After a few months of honeymoon, the situation started deteriorating.

One day some people saw that he was crying at the grave of his late friend. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and he was repeatedly saying: “Why did you die?”.

The screams were telling the ‘plight’ of the second husband.

Legislators having a better understanding of the Constitution commented that it was the ‘collective’ responsibility of the cabinet to solve the minister’s problem. They said while the government claimed that it was committed to solving all problems of people, it should first do something for a minister who must be feeling lonely and depressed in the absence of a heartthrob.

As the session was adjourned for Monday, Education Minister Mian Imran Masood came to Rana Sanaullah Khan and, pointing to the PPP MPAs, said: “They have reached an agreement with us”. He put his fist on a paper, signifying that it had been stamped.

The PML-N leaders are already suspecting that the PPP is holding secret talks with the ruling party. Some senior leaders of the party have indicated that they will take up the matter with the PPP leadership.

Interestingly, ruling PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and PPP-Parliamentarians President Makhdoom Amin Fahim deny that any deal was even being negotiated.

Observers say that the situation will crystallize in the near future.