KARACHI – Some moments are priceless. Even better are the ones that give a sense of ecstasy, and galvanise the people – at least the ones in the press gallery of the Sindh Assembly. Many thanks then to Speaker Nisar Khuhro, who called out some ministers on their declarations of nothingness at the Sindh Assembly session on Wednesday. The moment was euphoric, I wish you were there.
Khuhro Saheb is not a pure-bred jiyala (with due respects to you, sir): he started his political career in Tehreek-e-Istiqlal (TI), and it is there that he was trained in the arts of politics and polemics. The TI, of course, did not quite the best of relationships with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
The height of their acrimony was due to a statement made by TI chief Asghar Khan, who had dared to say that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto should be hanged at Kala Pul (en route Azad Kashmir). For the PPP, the TI was the “Qatil League” of that time – and there was no reconciliation to save the day.
Khuhro Saheb ultimately joined the PPP, much to the chagrin of many. Within party circles, however, he was often rebuked for having been associated with that anathema called the TI. But through his commitment and dedication, and undoubtedly because of his candid but measured opinions, he rose from within the ranks: Benazir Bhutto ultimately made him president of the Sindh party.
Such is Khuhro’s political nous that while PPP-Shaheed Bhutto chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto and her associates manhandled him during the last elections over alleged rigging at a women’s polling station in Larkana, he stood with his arms folded. Khuhro knew his career would be up in he even dared to raise a finger at Murtaza Bhutto’s widow. A veteran he may be, but Khuhro is PPP’s most dynamic leader in Sindh.
It was quite funny then that the clearly politically infantile Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and Revenue Minister Jam Mahtab Daher tried to take him for a ride on the issue of plugging breaches in dykes (see Sindh on brink of agri crisis). Soomro is an expert in dillydallying, in entangling public matters in procedural issues, and toadying senior members. Daher is generally a quiet man, but his decision to make unintelligent excuses for government stupidity was shocking as well.
Both men seemingly forgot that Shehla Raza was not in the chair. In her place was a man who had called out Manzoor Wassan some time ago in a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari. Wassan had boasted that he had made hundreds of kilometres of roads across Sindh. Khuhro politely requested President Zardari to ask him how many of these projects were actually completed. None was the answer.
President Zardari is scheduled to arrive in Karachi after his Japan trip, I hear. Soomro and Daher, you are in big trouble. As for us, Pakistan winning the Cricket World Cup in ’92 was the last time one felt so good. You should have been there for the ten minutes at the Sindh Assembly session on Wednesday, it was euphoric.
