Alarm bells rang in the National Assembly on Monday when lawmakers warned the government of Tunisia or Egypt like situation if failed to address the issues being faced by the people. Corruption, Extremism, Unemployment, Lawlessness, Price Hike, Load shedding of Electricity and Gas are some of the factors identified by the legislators, which they said can trigger 'mutiny.'
Though performance of the government is being considered unsatisfactory by the people, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has been quoted saying that current situation in Egypt or Tunisia cannot be compared with Pakistan as country's institutions were working and democracy was functional. Marvi Memon of PML-Q went to contest premier's statement who was sitting in the house, saying we should learn lesson from what happened in Egypt and Tunisia where rulers had failed to pay attention to their subject. She said that the Prime Minister should not have to be so optimistic.
While participating in discussion on admitted adjournment motions regarding increase in the prices of items of daily use, parliamentarians urged the government to control the prices as they seemingly were in nobody's control. Meanwhile, Ms Palwasha of PPP pointed out to the house that a Sindh Assembly member belonging to Hindu community had shifted to India after selling his belongings in Pakistan. It is an alarming situation that a member of the parliament had found himself in such a situation that he opted to leave Pakistan, she added.
She said that a news item of the incident had been published in the media but it seems as if it failed to attract the members of this house. Did anyone contact with that Hindu member of the assembly over his decision, she questioned. Nawab Yousuf Talpur of the PPP also highlighted a case in which a Hindu family of his constituency was kidnapped on Saturday but the local police had no clue of their whereabouts.
During the previous session I had highlighted three such incident against the minorities and the Interior Minister had promised to give report in two days but that day has not come yet, he lamented. Akram Masiah Gill of PML-Q said that the situation regarding rights of minorities was very grave since treasury benches were highlighting incidents of victimisation. He went on to say, "there is not a single political party, which can claim to have policy for minorities."