A number of questions have been posted for the National Assembly Private Members' Day sitting on Tuesday. These deal with shortage of Atta and its disappearance from the market as well as inadequate civic facilities in G-11 sector Islamabad.
The Private Members' Day is normally utilised for pressing important matters designed to cause embarrassment as well as to press for urgent measures to be taken by the government on these subjects.
This scribe asked a few secretariat officials as to which side will play the role of the private member after the absence of PML-N and MMA members and the reply he received was that perhaps the PPP could play that role if their members would be present.
The PPP is still listed among the Opposition though on Thursday the party, with 56 members, opted for power sharing with the government in publishing the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). And, quite a few analysts in their comments have described it openly as the PML-Q's 'B' team.
However, the PPP is aware of the stings of arrows aimed against it. In the words of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the PML-Q president, spoken on Sunday, 'We wanted to snare the PPP and we were successful in doing it saw a tit-for-tat statement comment from Sherry Rahman, the PPP information secretary, saying the PML had been exposed as a manipulator to stick always with the government in power, and it had no scruples in attaining that end.
Farzana Raja, the Punjab information secretary of PPP is the author of the latest salvo. The NRO has provoked the strongest opposition in the Punjab.
Farzana Raja, echoing her Punjab president Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said in a statement that the ruling party (PML-Q)) is a coterie of individuals who wanted power at all costs.
It would be interesting to watch the proceeding of the NA on Tuesday and find out the PPP present role, whether it would try to present the public the role of a sharer of power or oppose the government, as it did on Thursday as a benefactor of the NRO but reverted to the old role as was evident in Amin Fahim walking out from the NA booth during the voting for the President's election. If not, some members from the PML party would have to play the private members' role.
According to definition a private member is one who is not a minister, minister of state or parliamentary affairs. Now, these three could not become private members and it would fall to chairman of standing committees to function as such. Would they like that?