MPA berates PPP for renaming college after Aseefa

Karachi
“Who is Bibi Aseefa?” exclaimed Mehtab Akbar Rashidi. “Who is she? Why has been a dental college renamed after a member of the ruling elite?
This exclamation by Rashidi, who has served as the education secretary, shocked the treasury lawmakers during Wednesday’s session when the House passed the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana (Amendment) Bill 2015.
For a while, the MPAs of Pakistan People’s Party couldn’t even fathom a reply to this remark from the lawmaker of one of the opposition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional. The blow was especially harder on Wednesday because members of the main opposition party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were missing from the assembly. They were in their chambers, finalising the strategy to tender their resignations.
The bill proposed and then subsequently passed by the House called for renaming the Chandka Dental College, a constituent part of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, to Bibi Aseefa Dental College, according to the resolution adopted by university syndicate on July 3.
However, a completely unfazed and unperturbed Rashidi went on to ask again: “Who is Aseefa? What are her services? What are her services on grounds of which the college is being renamed after her? Naming colleges and universities after anyone was only deserved if they have actually done something for their people and served them!”
She commented that the government had a habit of renaming public and private institutions after members of families of the ruling elite.
“This undeserving practice should be put to an end,” she said.
“I personally know who Bibi Aseefa is and her relation to the late prime minister. But at least the proposers of the bill should inform the House what her full name is! The word ‘Bibi’ is confusing because the foreign press attributes it for her mother,” she said.