In all fairness, holding of an in-camera session to address security concerns and to take the parliamentarians into confidence regarding the bitter and factual ground realities was a positive step. Both, President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, have emphatically stated time and again that the Parliament is the supreme body and all important decisions will be taken after taking the Parliamentarians into confidence.
But the spirit of holding of an in-camera session of the Parliament to deliberate on sensitive issues is violated by some quarters, by raising unreasonable questions and leaking out the proceedings to the print and electronic media. During the in-camera Parliament session, the Federal government's point of view was put forth by a number of Federal Ministers and other concerned top brass of the civilian and armed forces set up.
This was strictly in accordance with well-established parliamentary practices. Any Federal Minister or for that matter Minister of State or a Parliamentary Secretary, during the National Assembly and Senate session, or if both the houses are together, can stand up and put forth the government point of view on a particular issue, or matter, and make a policy statement, if the ministers concerned are not there, somehow.
The Federal Cabinet and its members work under the policy of collective responsibility and, as such, it is preferable that the minister in charge should face the good or bad music but, any other member of the Federal Cabinet can also take on the burden.
It is also an established fact that in any Federal Government, irrespective of gender, the Minister in charge of Information and Broadcasting is considered the official spokesman and is fully authorised to put forth the government point of view on behalf of any other cabinet member in his absence. And, as reported in the media, if the Parliamentarians showed little interest in what they were being told, then they are alone to be blamed for this.
So, if Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Ms Sherry Rahman took up the floor the other day to answer queries from Parliamentarians, she did not do any wrong. As a matter of fact by shouldering the onerous responsibility, she duly compensated for the absence of the Defence and Foreign Ministers and the Advisor to the PM on Interior Affairs, who were accompanying President Asif Ali Zardari on his visit to China.
She represented the Federal Government as a Minister who knew what she was saying. It was a sheer coincidence that the Ulema of different schools of thoughts held a meeting in Lahore just when the Parliament was holding an in-camera briefing session about security concerns and came out with virtually a unanimous view that Islam strictly prohibits committing suicide and as such launching suicide attacks and killing innocent people in every strike is "Haram".
Ulema should have come out with their views regarding suicide attacks earlier. But still, better late than never. Ulema and religious scholars would do a lot of service to religion, and the nation if they, in a delegation, visit the troubled tribal areas in FATA and NWFP and tell the tribesmen and women and their children the same in a much elaborate and convincing manner, directly.
Putting across such an important message in the present circumstances indirectly, by sitting hundreds of miles away, would hardly have the desired impact. The Federal Government and the NWFP Provincial Government should facilitate the visit of the ulema and religious scholars, of all schools of thoughts, to the troubled areas.
Their direct interaction with the tribal people, in particular with the elders, in the troubled areas would certainly prove productive as they need to be explained Islam and its teachings. The earlier it is done, the better it would be for everyone.