FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The credibility issue would remain the biggest problem of the present government. This was also evident in the Senate on Tuesday when this issue again transpired when the Minister of State for Communication Chaudhry Imtiaz Warriach was responding to different questions. The minister was asked to let the House know about the delay in the completion of motorways.
He cited different justifications no one was ready to believe. In the first place a thin presence of the ministers irked the Senators and the Chair have to notice the situation by giving directives to the leader of the House that it was his duty to ensure that ministers are present at the commencement of the session.
Such directives have always been issued from time to time by the Speaker National Assembly and Chairman Senate but one year down the road they have not been able to ensure presence of sufficient number of ministers during the question hour session. The result was that the questions have to be deferred for the next session.
The minister's justifications that delay in timely completion of projects was owing to law and order situation got infuriated a few Senators who even asked him to assure them on the floor of the House that he was speaking truth. As this was happening inside the House, a journalist entered the press gallery and told his colleagues that a peaceful demonstration of journalists was quelled by police. The journalists staged a walk out as protest against the police attitude.
Standing outside the Parliament House, some media people were of the view that Bhutto's party was finished. What made them think so was not clear but these remarks reminded me of a gathering discussing the same issue.
A vocal supporter of the PPP was of the view that finally the establishment has been successful. Their desire to have PPP minus Bhutto was finally fulfilled. We have no one from Bhutto family to lead from the front and those at the helm are least interested in the party affairs. They don't even have an idea how to run the party. The result, he said was a total disconnection between leadership and workers. No doubt that the PPP led by its new chairman has lost the contact with the workers, which have been its real strength and kept the party alive in the worst crisis.
When media people returned to the House after an assurance by the Information Minister that action would be taken against the police the question hour session was over. The House was debating the issue of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with Haji Adeel sad and furious over the attitude of some of the PPP leaders from Sindh. He could not believe that people like Makhdoom Amin Fahim could have opposed the entry of IDPs in Sindh.
Adeel said such an attitude by other provinces would create more Taliban and no one would be safe in the country. He said that IDPs are Pakistani and have not come from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or any other country therefore they should not be called 'Mohajirs'.
Apprising about his party's efforts for peace, he said that all options including negotiation were tried but Sufi Muhammad and his followers' growing brutalities forced a military operation. He said every political party was taken on board and a consensus was evolved before going for the military action which was seen the only option to restore peace. Now it was the duty of every Pakistani to help the IDPs who he said have been suffering to protect Pakistan. At the same time he also demanded an inquiry by the committee of the Senate to ascertain as to how massive ammunition was transported in the Swat valley. He demanded exposure of those people who have not allowed during the last five-year crushing such elements in Swat when they were in small number and limited to insignificant area.
He wanted the people of Pakistan know as to who was behind all this in a valley that was in settled area of NWFP and no link to Afghanistan or any other country. PML-Q's S M Zafar said that Pakistan was passing through a very critical time with infighting. The armed forces by launching the operation were fulfilling its constitutional obligations but this obligation could only be successful by showing full unity. According to him the civilian government can invite the army in these kinds of situations. He also underlined the need for taking tangible measures to support IDPs. "Pakistan is in a state of war and in great need of unity to cope with the prevailing situation."