The sitting of the National Assembly on Thursday was unusual for the reason that treasury and opposition appeared acting each other's role. The opposition was very calm and quiet whereas treasury members one after the other waited impatiently for their turn to speak on point of order to express their displeasure over the incident occurring in areas ruled by their parties.
The complete silence by the opposition during the proceedings and outcry by the treasury members against their own government was surprising as otherwise, the opposition rarely misses an opportunity to yell on the government had no reason to speak on point of orders. A fairly reasonable attendance of the opposition members was present in the House but no one requested point of order whereas, on the other hand, there was an unending demand by the treasury to speak not against the problems in KP, Punjab or Balochistan but in Sindh and Federal Capital also. All this started after the question hour when Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) threatening to boycott the joint sitting of Parliament scheduled to be addressed by the President, staged a walkout on rising incidents of extortions in Karachi and refused to turn up till the adjournment of the proceedings.
Some people quipped that apparently, all the political parties seem to be trying to focus on their electoral as the next elections are approaching. They argue that why the Parliamentarians of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) including daughter of Provincial Chief Minister, Nafeesa Shah and sister of the President, Dr Azra Fazal are alleging their own government in the province for failing to protect the minorities what they described facing threats of forced conversion by the religious leaders. And why the PML-N was quiet on the issue, may be because it does not want to upset the vote bank in the right wing whereas the treasury party was raising the issue, to gain support of the leftists otherwise it may not be difficult for it to go against the people involved in the recent incident against the minorities. The perception was that by and large both the major political parties are now picking and choosing the issues in the Parliament on consideration of their electoral.
The ruling party wanted two resolutions, one against the bureaucracy and the other to condemn the forced conversion in rural Sindh following recent incident against minorities and blamed religious leaders for forcibly taking the people into Madaris. If this was the case, then how anybody could expect from the party in power in the province and center to protect the people and have no right to remain in power. The problem was not confined to Sindh province as Syed Khurshid Shah sought support of the Parliament against what he described unbridled bureaucracy. The reason he gave was that discourteous attitude of Chairman of Capital Development Authority (CDA) who refused to oblige the senior minister by releasing the funds for infrastructure projects in the Capital. One reason for not releasing the fund could be the fiscal constraints of the federal government in the ongoing fiscal year. One could ask what was holding the ruling party from raising the issue during last eight years if the funds were not released during last eight years. Is PPP raising the issue because the elections are going to be probably held in the ongoing fiscal year and the party wanted to woo the voters in the Capital? Whatever the reason may be a lot of interest was evoked in the House with the treasury members protesting against their own governments, in Sindh and Federal Capital, for failing to deliver.
MQM was concerned about the capital of the province, and its constituency for reason that the incidents of extortion have started surging in the metropolis again. The threat by MQM to boycott the joint sitting was of serious nature as some people say that Afaq Ahmed of Haqiqi and reported rapprochement between PPP and Zulfikar Mirza was the real reason of the party protest because these two may affect MQM vote bank in the provincial capital. Haider Abbas Rizvi of MQM who led a walkout after making a fiery speech loaded with threat to boycott the joint session of the Parliament provided the government did not act against the miscreants in the city making hostage the business community. Rizvi said that over Rs 0.6 million was being extorted daily from only one market in Karachi and no one was feeling safe as the situation compelled the industrialists to go on strike by closing their businesses.