Caution: men at work
When a parliamentary party which has taken an issue to the streets agrees to get it resolved through Parliament the move needs to be welcomed. What the National Assembly Speaker did on Wednesday was the opposite. If he thought the privilege motions presented by both PPP and PTI against the PM were untenable, he should have called the leaders of the two parties to his chamber to settle the issue instead of unilaterally rejecting the motions on a questionable ground. When PTI’s senior VP was refused permission to speak on his motion, this led his party to lodge a noisy protest inside the House followed by a walk out and a press conference. Khursheed Shah however managed to voice his criticism of the prime minister through a point of order, underscoring contradictions in his stand for about fifty minutes. The PPP legislators however sat on their benches as the PTI MNAs left their seats to protest in front of the Speaker’s chair. What is more the party did not take part in PTI’s boycott of the proceedings. This helped the Leader of the Opposition and the government reach an understanding on how to defuse the situation.
It was agreed to allow Shah Mahmud Qureshi to have his say in the sitting of the NA on Thursday. Had the government shown flexibility a day earlier, it would have been spared the more than half an hour long earful from the PTI leader. Qureshi made Khwaja Saad Rafiq withdraw the strong words he had use against the protesters and offer an apology. The government side however did not respond to the demand for the PM issuing a statement in NA about the perceived contradictions in his stand.
The government has to realise that it needs the oppositions support to sustain and strengthen the system. It has therefore to shun arrogance towards the opposition. The PTI on its part needs to comply with parliamentary norms. Unless both sides rectify their behaviour, the truce may not last long.
