LAHORE, Sept 8: Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja and PML-N Punjab Assembly parliamentary party leader Rana Sanaullah Khan, like many others in the house, were together in the same party, headed by Mian Nawaz Sharif.
However, they parted company when Mr Sharif was ousted and the PML-Q was launched to meet the requirements of the new ground realities. Now Raja is holding the second most important position in the Punjab government, while Rana occupies the second most important position in the opposition.
Both represent their respective sides well, at times embarrassing each other. For example, on Wednesday the ongoing demolition of a part of the Lahore High Court building came under discussion for a while. The structure is being razed to set up eight new courts.
PPP's Rana Aftab, a lawyer, and Shafqat Abbasi, also belonging to the same profession, said that the demolition is violative of the Special Premises Act, under which the General Post Office, the LHC and the Punjab Assembly buildings can't be demolished. If necessary, they can be repair without impairing their architecture.
The point led to the exchange of some interesting remarks between the opposition and the treasury - which was a good attempt at exposing each other. Rana Sanaullah said Communications Minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin had assured the house that the LHC building was not being demolished, but the work was in progress even on Wednesday.
The institution of the judiciary has already been flattened and now the building is the target, said the PML-N leader with a sarcastic smile on his face. A reference was also made to the attack on the Supreme Court building during the days when Mian Nawaz Sharif was still the prime minister and then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had initiated contempt proceedings against him.
The law minister, without wasting a moment, rose in his seat to say that it should be made clear who was responsible for the attack. Many allege that the apex court building was attacked at the behest of the then PML government and both Raja and Rana were with Mr Sharif at the time.
Thus, their leadership was responsible for it, no matter whether the law minister doesn't like to be identified with the Sharifs any more. That Raja Basharat was as close to the Sharifs then as he is to the Chaudhrys now - is an irrefutable fact.
Communications Minister Zaheeruddin cut in to point out that the LHC chief justice was supervising the entire project and he could not be supposed to violate any law the opposition legislators were referring to.
MMA's Ehsanullah Waqas made a lame attempt at driving a wedge between the ruling PML and its coalition partner PPP (Rao Sikandar group). However, in the effort he made the political position of the religious alliance doubtful.
He raised a point of order that former interior minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat had accused the Punjab government of protecting human smugglers. The allegation, he said, violated the privilege of the entire house.
Just because they enjoy uniform's support, we can't allow the PPP-Patriots to cast aspersion on "our government", said the MMA leader, pretending as if he felt more hurt than the Punjab government.
He asked the government to clarify its position. Raja Basharat told the house the allegations had already been denied both by the government and the Lahore High Court.
Ehsanullah Waqas's reference to the Pervaiz Elahi government as "our government" is a serious matter for the PPP and the PML-N to determine whether the MMA is an ally of the ruling party or the opposition.
This may be a good opportunity for the ARD to see to what extent they can bank upon the religious alliance while preparing their future against the government. The Punjab government has been insistently saying that it is imparting highest priority to education.
However, the claim stood exposed on Wednesday when the education minister told the house that 55,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant because funds are not available to fill them.
He also admitted that buildings are not available for many educational institutions and many buildings lacked facilities. Imran Masood has been heading the education department also when Mian Shahbaz Sharif was the chief minister. If the conditions remain deplorable even after his two years with the present government, nobody will trust his utterances about high priority to the education sector.