FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

Nothing can happen more interesting than what was witnessed in the two houses of parliament on Friday. The upper house was echoed with comments for and against the Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar's daughter case. But in National Assembly, the PML (N) lawmakers were put to a task to defend its leader Nawaz Sharif in the case of his daughter who, exactly like Dogar's daughter, also wanted to become a doctor allegedly without having required marks in intermediate.
Come on, the PML (N) MNAs were not defending their leader. Therefore, I should not have written that they put to the task. They were complaining about the distribution of anti-Nawaz Sharif pamphlets among some members of National Assembly. Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, who is a recent addition in the PML (N), on a point of order said: "The distribution of pamphlets is part of campaign of character assassination of Nawaz Sharif. We must be told who is behind this move". This is being done merely to place Justice Dogar's daughter case under the carpet, he said.
The PML (N) lodged a strong protest in National Assembly over distribution of pamphlets in the premises of NA without speaker's permission. PML (N) parliamentarians also demanded Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to look into the matter. But, they never said about factual position of a report in which it was alleged that Nawaz's daughter Mariam Safdar illegally migrated from one medical college of Rawalpindi to another in Lahore when Nawaz Sharif was ruling the country. They did not contradict the news item on the floor of the house.
Mariam's husband, Captain Muhammad Safdar (Retd) was present in the house, but he also did not contradict the report. Is this a factual report? This might be an interesting aspect of this issue as from report it is proved that Maiam never took her medical studies seriously and he never made to take even the first year examination in the medical college.
Ahsan Iqbal, later on, defended his leader and said that Nawaz Sharif never used his clout to do any favour to his daughter. Mariam Nawaz was migrated to King Adwards Medical College, Lahore after one year. The migration was done on mutual basis as one student belonging to Rawalpindi studying at the Adwards College wanted to migrate to Army Medical College.
Nawaz daughter's is new addition in high profile cases, which have surfaced recently. If we go back in the past around two years back, three cases became prominent. In two of the cases i.e. the daughters of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Nawaz Sharif wanted to become doctors. The case of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was different because his son was already a doctor and he wanted to be inducted in the country's police service.
One would argue with Mariam because she never took her MBBS studies seriously. I think she was having a pain in her heart for the ailing humanity of Pakistan. But she must have properly made up her mind before what was she going to do.
Strange, very strange things happen in this country. Some parents are paying the price to make their children doctors. And one father was blamed to turn his doctor son a police officer. Many will argue that such things did happen in the past, but they were never highlighted. But one would suggest them that media was not open at that time. Now it is said to be an era of media.
One will not disagree with me that such news reports create a political tug of war. On Friday, Hanif Abbasi demanded an explanation from the speaker of the National Assembly as to who are behind the distribution of anti-Nawaz pamphlets, but I think most of the PML (N) people will definitely know who has done this.
Yes, Sherry Rehman said that nobody knew about Mariam Nawaz case and the PPP government does not indulge in such tactics. She said that PML-Q MNA Shehnaz Sheikh raised the issue on Friday and later she said that someone had given her the letter to be handed over to PML-N leaders. But, I think Sherry must know more than what she told media in Parliament House premises.
It was on December 15, a PPP leader from Lahore alleged that King Adwards Medical College had ignored rules of migration in Mariam Nawaz case in 1991. So from this development one could say, though not for sure, that source of information must be someone from PPP, which is not happy with the PML (N) stand on Dogar's daughter case. Yes, one cannot ignore the possible role of anyone from the PML (Q).
Whatever or whoever is behind this report, all this is done to have a political confrontation. This kind of situation would not augur well for democracy. Everything is not going well between PPP and PML (N). The new case will turn the situation further tense.
From Monday session of the National Assembly, it was clear that the PPP is, no more, interested in defending Justice Dogar, but from Friday Senate proceedings one can say that PPP and some other political forces still have many lawmakers who are not going to abandon him.
Senator Kamran Murtaza said that issues were created to weaken democracy and clear way for other forces to grab power. Commenting on the case of Justice Iftikhar he said, first media started campaign against him then he was made hero. The country is passing through crisis and such issues are diverting attention from real problems, which will ultimately weaken democratic government, he added.