Joint sitting turns into opposition, treasury skirmishes

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The joint sitting of Parliament called purely for legislative business on Monday turned into a sporadic political skirmish of sorts between treasury and opposition benches. 

It was a calculated risk treasury was prepared to take, giving opposition some room to vent out their anger to make rest of the two days of sitting hassle-free of sort for serious legislative business.

Pick of the business before the joint sitting remains the PIA bill the treasury wants to pass dearly, and are bent to call it corporatisation of the state entity, opposition seriously suspects as privatisation.

Rest of the legislation involving opposition bills (5 in number) don’t matter, may be used as give and take depending on opposition’s mood and strategy for the next two days. So from the word go on Monday evening, both the sides wanted to waste no time in outwitting the other on pure politics, knowing fully well the legislative business bores most of the easy going, fun loving legislators across opposition-treasury divide.

From the outset, Opposition’s top notches, some half-heartedly, seemed in a hurry to register and be counted on former president Pervez Musharraf’s hasty yet legal exit from the country.

As a result, political blame game and intermittent exchange of taunts consumed most the time of the first day’s proceedings on the very issue. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, having chaired a meeting of some ministers and all parliamentary leaders before the session, tried his best to play by the book for half an hour till Premier Nawaz Sharif remained seated in the House. In the process, he intercepted PTI’s parliamentary leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi several times, didn’t allow the protesting MQM legislators to speak etc. Sheikh Rashid had a lucky escape from Speaker’s wrath too, as he turned up after PM’s departure.

Had he been present when the premier was around, he would have found Speaker Sadiq a different man – more authoritative and strict – as witnessed in the past. On this day too, Premier Sharif remained focused, seemingly appreciative of the performance of Ayaz Sadiq – his choice for Speaker for defeating PTI leader in 2013 elections from Lahore constituency. For most part of his half an hour  presence in the House, Nawaz Sharif remained tucked-in comfortably in his seat, read paper chits, and some notes. Throughout, premier seemed less inclined to lend ears to some important ministers in the second row as is usually the case. Instead, minister Rana Tanveer kept glued to the seat next to premier’s as colleague ministers Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif and Ch Nisar were indulged in more serious business, countering opposition’s moves and tactics. So they kept on sending timely chits of advice to the Speaker in a subtle manner.

So one this day too, Speaker went into the accommodative mode as soon as the proceedings resumed after prayer break, knowing well Premier Sharif won’t return to the House to witness Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah’s somewhat boring political rhetoric. But the old guards, Shah and Ch Aitzaz had to perform on this day. Under pressure from the young yet politically naive party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto to put up some face facing show, PPP’s old gurus – Opposition Leader in the Senate and National Assembly – knew how to engage and frustrate treasury short of a walkout or disruption of the proceedings. So they tried their bit without becoming spoilers. Put maximum applicable pressure on the Sharif government, was the instruction from Bilawal House, Karachi. They tried their bit. Both National Assembly and Senate Opposition leaders, sitting side by side, rose one-by-one to throw salvos of taunts towards the treasury on Gen Musharraf’s exit from the country. The point they wanted to emphasise was the way current dispensation facilitated an escape route for the former dictator, even when the top court had left it to the discretion of the executive to make the final decision. Khursheed Shah availed himself of half an hour of his full of verbosity laden speech that comprised mostly of Premier Sharif’s year 2014 address in which he had vowed to try Musharraf on treason charges. Reading aloud Premier’s past statements, Shah used some comic interjections amusing everyone, even the soft spoken Pervaiz Rashid and calculated firebrand Saad Rafiq, when he read out their past principled statements on Musharraf. In the process, Shah consumed 30 odd minutes, Ch Aitzaz was unusually very brief. The top lawyer wanted Ch Nisar to read out top court’s final order, which according to him, puts onus of Musharraf’s travel ban relaxation on government of the day. Nisar had his own interpretation of top court’s ruling on Musharraf’s ECL case. At this point, the treasury seemed reluctant to go deep into the issues and give more room to opposition to dominate proceedings. It was a perfect time for Speaker to intercept, so he offered a separate time in the joint sitting on the third day or special time in the regular assembly proceedings to discuss the issues threadbare -- a temporary political truce of sort. At the end of the day, it was generally felt it turned out to be a battle of nerves between the two top PPP men -- Khursheed Shah and Aitzaz Ahsan – verses Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan. To what extent the top opposition duo was able to convince their desk thumping legislators tucked nearby, or supporters through television beams, is any body’s guess. Especially they were confronted by plain talking, less accommodative interior minister of the country. Living up to his reputation, the interior minister rose and deflected, sometimes outwitted opposition’s attacks. In the process he reminded them that former dictator was free to roam inside and abroad throughout their five years stint in power. Exercising self-restraint, he didn’t remind the PPP benches how cozy and cordial former president Zardari and premier Gilani remained with Musharraf’s men, political aides and partners, throughout PPP tenure, 2008-13. He however reminded PPP of their coalition partners PML-Q (Musharraf’s cronies) having remained part and parcel of their government from 2010-13. But didn’t remind why Mr Zardari continued to offer Musharraf’s all-purpose close aide Tariq Aziz top adviser’s slot. Do we still remember the famous secret meeting between Mr Zardari and the then president Musharraf in the presidential suit of a five-star hotel immediately after the 2008 elections before government formation? The then PPP man Shah Mahmood Qureshi could recall the past as he tried to form a formidable opposition partnering PPP in both the house in a bid to give tough time to PML-N government. Imran and Jehangir khan Tareen seem less interested. Both didn’t turn up in the joint sitting today nor did Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Sirajul Haq. Senate chairman also didn’t turn up – he took a principled constitutional stance, we came to know. On his part however, PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi remained a side kick, less convincing throughout Monday’s proceedings. He didn’t return to the proceedings afterwards, even when interior minister challenged his party’s sincerity with “stop Musharraf cause”. Better luck next time Shah Sahib.