FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

Tragedy bares the undeniable nobility of human soul. It reduces distances between the people and brings them together. No doubt, the Asian tsunami disaster created massive waves of compassion all over the world. On Friday, a seriously frayed Senate sitting in no time came under a spell of harmony and togetherness when Senate member from Balochistan Parigul Agha told her colleagues: You have had enough of sparring, why don't you do something for hundreds and thousands of hapless compatriots caught in the fury of rain and snow.
Response was quick. Putting aside their anger and differences that had permeated the proceedings since morning they joined hands and created a common fund to send relief to the affected people in Balochistan and NWFP.
The siting on this soggy morning were clearly divided into two parts - war and then peace. Ilyas Bilour asked what measures the government had taken to counter 40 percent increase in duty on Pakistani IRRI-6 rice by the Kenyan government.
Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar's reply that Kenya was forced into doing so as member of the newly set up East African community and that bilateral talks with Nairobi were underway to rectify the situation did not satisfy the questioner. If Kenya refuses to scale down its duty on rice why don't you tell them that Pakistan would cut down tea import from that country, Bilour told the minister.
To this, MQM Senator Ahmed Ali added his perception that facts - like "defeat at WTO" are being concealed. Ishaq Dar, Dr Safdar Abbasi then joined Ilyas Bilour, but the minister stood his ground.
If tempers were not adequately raised over Bilour's question it was Hameedullah Afridi's query about the domicile of Grade-22 officers and as to why three senior officers belonging to Fata were superseded. Abdullah Riar got up to declare that "provincial discrimination is at its peak", of which the Sindh urban officials are the main beneficiaries. Azam Swati added to it by insisting that the federation is bound to help under-developed regions of the country to remove their backwardness. But concerned minister, Sher Afgan, responded by claiming that members were airing parochialism.
That triggers a sparring match between him and some opposition members, which led to a walkout by the opposition. When the opposition members were out of the House a number of questions asked by them could not be taken. But, given the seriousness of the question about senior appointments the chair was kind enough to offer the floor for more supplementary questions.
Once again, the senators from NWFP and Balochistan protested that officers from their provinces were being ignored and superseded. But Sher Afgan was adamant that the postings and transfers at the senior level are the prerogative of the prime minister and there should be no dispute about it.
To this, Asfandyar Wali asked if that is the case what had motivated the prime minister to post Gulzar Khan, a Grade-21 officer of NWFP, as OSD. If the premier thinks that an officer is not competent he is made OSD, Sher Afgan said. That's not true, insisted Asfandyar Wali, saying that Gulzar Khan was made OSD because he had refused to oblige his minister Faisal Saleh Hayat to overlook the misuse of official transport.
"We talk so much of transparency, the House has the right to know the truth in this case," Raza Rabbani said. But Sher Afgan held the position that postings and transfers of senior officers are the privilege of the prime minister because he is to run the country. Asfandyar Wali rejected this. Then there was a bout of loud sparring between him and Sher Afgan, during which the minister claimed that the senator was incensed because Gulzar Khan was related to him.
That provoked still more serious protest. Asfandyar Wali branded Sher Afgan as the "government's bull in the china shop" and requested the chair "If you want smooth sailing for God sake bring some one else in place of this minister". The opposition members greeted this suggestion by forcefully thumping the desks.
But it was the timely intervention by Parigul Agha that scuttled the heated debate on making NWFP officers OSDs. Aslam Buledi, then Wasim Sajjad, Fauzia Fakhruddin, Anisa Zeb, Maulana Gul Naseeb and others joined her and the House decided to donate one-month salary of each member towards alleviating the misery of the calamity-hit people in the two provinces.