FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The 12th session of the Senate, requisitioned by the Opposition, opened here on Tuesday. Given that it was in the Opposition's interest that proceedings should be peaceful, the house remained tranquil, though speeches by its members were biting and at times quite provocative.
The treasury members took all this in good stride, may be, because the government had only a perfunctory interest in the session; an example of that could be cited the absence of the ministers during the debate that followed the question hour.
The proceedings started late by 40 minutes. The question hour was lifeless. Some important questions were supposed to have been replied by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Defence Minister Rao Sikander Iqbal.
Both were not present, and while Information Minister Sheikh Rashid stood for the interior minister, the defence minister was proxied by Defence Production Minister, who was a complete stranger to at least one of the Opposition senators who asked the minister to first introduce himself.
These gentlemen were so ill-prepared to deal with the supplementary questions that Sheikh Rashid openly confessed that he could not give right replies so the questions about Interior be deferred. Chairman Muhammad Mian Soomro agreed.
Then came other proxy's turn, which, too, was out of focus with the subject, and the questions about Defence were also deferred.
The call for Maghrab prayer proved to be the divine intervention and the proxies were spared of the agony when the Chairman adjourned the House for half an hour.
At the very outset, the house unanimously approved two resolutions. The first resolution condoled the death of former senator Syed Mazhar Ali and the second was about the killing of three Chinese at Gwadar the other day.
The house demanded thorough probe into the killings and swift punishment to the culprits, stressing that no terrorist act could undermine the Pak-China friendship.
As if the Chairman keen to help Opposition vindicate its anger, he allowed lengthy debate on points of order - to the chagrin of the Leader of the House, Wasim Sajjad, who later bemoaned had the speeches been consequent to some prior notice the official reaction would have been given.
The ministers who should be listening to these speeches were not there because they were not informed of the nature of debate. But the Opposition leader, Raza Rabbani, did not accept that proposition and insisted that prior notice or no notice the ministers owe it to their existence that they should sit in the parliament.
Wheat crisis, political victimisation, monopolisation of transport in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad by an ex-general's family and fear that Shahbaz Sharif is returning were the main subjects of the speeches.
Opening the debate, Raza Rabbani cited the case of twice-arrested and twice bailed-out Zamrud Khan, the local MNA belonging to the PPP, as the worst example of political victimisation. "But my message is that we will not bend."
Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi rhymed in, suggesting that the government is scared of Shabaz Sharif. Ever since the announcement that the PML (N)'s president is coming to Pakistan, the party workers are being hounded and held all over the country. He also mentioned the firing at Opposition's candidate in Rahim Yar Khan by-election, in which his wife and daughter Jaffar Iqbal were wounded. Professor Khursheed Ahmad and Safder Abbasi also charged the government of using state machinery in terrorising the Opposition.
Asfandyar Wali talked about wheat crisis that he said has hit the country for the second time in six months. Drastic price differential in the prices of wheat on the two banks of Indus has a "message for all of us", he said. The Punjab's ban on movement of wheat is also violation of Article 151 of the Constitution, but he smelled rat in what is happening.
He asked three questions: First, is the government willing to make public the list of people who got hefty loans from banks and bought wheat. Two, why the wheat imported from Australia was rejected when the same was acceptable to UAE.
Wali sounded the dire warning: When children die of starvation, law loses its sanctity. Then, for the sake of argument, he said, if Punjab is refusing to let wheat reach smaller provinces how you then expect them to part with their products.
Whatever the intensity of feelings that laced the speeches in the Senate, eerily weird foreboding about the future of political system is taking rounds in the Capital. Political-power concentration is name of the game. The Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday is expected to do away with the clause of the Political Parties Ordinance (PPO) which forbids putting the political and bureaucratic offices in one hand.
Prime Minister Jamali will become the general secretary of the unified PML. Then, according to one thesis, over the time, possibly before the end of the year, he would leave the premiership and someone else would move into that slot. And the party president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, will take up the top office. But that is just one thesis. As the time passes more such possibilities would be talked about. Keep your fingers crossed.