FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

Last Monday's defeat in a voice vote on the bill to condone delay in submitting report on the NDFC Act must have bruised many egos in the corridors of power. It was the first defeat of the government in the National Assembly and came on the heels of local government election, which had pitted 'brother against brother'.
Sweet revenge was in order, given the rulers' propensity to reject anything and everything, good or bad, which comes from the other side of the aisle.
Item 6 on the day's agenda was to "rescind" that decision of the House under which government's motion seeking condonation of delay in report submission was defeated. So, today (Monday) as soon as this item came up Deputy Speaker Sardar Yaqub, who was in the chair, put it to the House for vote, and it was passed--no discussion, no debate.
The opposition challenged the decision, demanding debate, even if there were one speech on the bill. But the chair insisted "what is done is done'. That brought the opposition-- which was mainly the ARD members because at that time the MMA was out of the House on a boycott-- to the dais asking the chair to reverse the decision. But he refused and found retreat a better part of chivalry, and adjourned the House to meet on Tuesday morning. This was yet another defeat of the government, though of a different kind.
It remains a mystery as to why the treasury benches cannot put their act together. Of course the sitting started late but there were quite a few ministers present in the House when the Question Hour commenced. However, none of them liked to offer reply to the very first supplementary question.
When the chair asked the parliamentary affairs minister, Sher Afgan, to stand in for the concerned minister his response was interesting if not quixotic. He stood up; looked at the chair, raised his right hand with fingers widely spread, and revolved them back and forth.
That done he walked out of the House, abdicating the time-honoured parliamentary practice that facing the opposition is the government's collective responsibility. Out of frying pan into the fire, it was law minister Wasi Zafar who took up the gauntlet and offered some funny replies.
Ventilating individual and collective problems through points of order is a popular practice in our parliament. Ramesh Lal brought up an incident of highhandedness against his community, as police remained a silent spectator, begging "protection to minorities".
PPPP's Zafar Ali Shah bewailed his 'imprisonment' at the hands of local officials during the local government election. Maulana Mairajuddin complained that Nadra office in the parliament building discriminates against applicants from Fata. M.P. Bhandara wanted the chair to ensure justice to the Question Hour. Khuda Baksh Nizamani said the agriculturists are not getting procurement price for 'phutti' and feared that the situation would further deteriorate.
MMA's Liaquat Baloch took the position that latest statements by Palestinian leadership show that the House was misinformed about the motivation behind the Kasuri-Sholam meeting last week. He said that was a breach of privilege of the House and wanted the chair to take it up. But Naveed Qamar wanted his party's many adjournment motions on price hike to be discussed.
Finding the latter's proposition less 'risky' the chair committed to take up the price hike issue that has come about in the wake of increased petroleum products prices in the next sitting.
This is how a day was done in the National Assembly, which meets -to quote Hafiz Hussain Ahmad-- only two-and-a-quarter days in a week at a cost that is astronomical and cannot be justified. Whatever the posturing by the opposition members on the floor of the House the fact is that they are equally guilty in squandering this poor country's money on as frivolous legislation as is being done in our parliament.