PRESS GALLERY – It was one-to-sixteen. The one-man PML-N assault was so thunderous, quick and calculated that it demolished the 16-strong MQM squad, leaving it crestfallen. The more you talk about martial law, the harder we will hit you – the message from Raiwind to Nine-Zero was loud and clear.
The vindictive and rancorous PML-N was waiting for the right time to strike and rhetoric-crooning Altaf Hussain provided his adversaries the opportunity to knock him down for proposing martial law in the Punjab. He can talk of such high-jinks sitting in a foreign country with no plans to make a comeback – thanks to the “champions of democracy” who not only provide us asylum and their country’s citizenship too but also freedom of expression to speak against democracy in a country like ours.
As Ahsan Iqbal launched a full-throttled attack on the MQM, it woke up even the napping back-benchers. The PPP ministers and members, who should have done what the PML-N did, looked on with a cathartic and supportive smile on their faces, encouraging him to keep going. As all MQM members stood up against Ahsan’s fiery rebuke of what their commander-in-chief had proposed in his “saintly sermon” to them a day earlier as a panacea for all crimes in the Punjab, he lacked his party’s support as his comrades were sitting scattered. “Come wearing a uniform … but do tell us, which country will you represent: India or Britain?” Ahsan stridently asked Altaf and the 16 yelling MQM members could not subdue him.
As they thought it was enough for the day, Rehman Malik – the trouble-shooter – led the PPP front-liners for a ceasefire between the two warring parties and the limited-to-words conflict came to an end for the time being as the deputy speaker adjourned the House. “Ahsan did well … such frivolous statements deserved a befitting response,” was the spontaneous reaction of every parliamentarian sharing his views with journalists in parliament lobbies.
A PPP minister even went to the extent of saying that it was too little for such a treacherous insinuation. Understandably no one who struggled and suffered for democracy can even think of martial law. Notwithstanding the PML-N’s credentials, the party has practically suffered at the hands of a dictator and realized that all generals are not like Ziaul Haq who had adopted the Sharifs and launched them into politics.
The PML-N will come fully armed to the House today and demand Altaf Hussain’s trial for treason only to mock at Article 6 which, despite having been made more stringent, remains and will remain ineffective as our politicians have yet to agree and build a national consensus on this point to block military interventions in future.
The race for ministerial slots in the new cabinet has started with the incumbents already looking for lobbyists to recommend them to the man on the top. As Dr Spoiler has prematurely exposed the game-plan throwing spanner in the works of his bosses, the move to dissolve the cabinet seems to have been put off for the time being. However, our mole says that the dissolution will take place sooner or later.
The plan is to appoint a team of 15 to 20 ministers in the first phase and the second batch with a gap of at least six months. The signs of nervousness are clearly visible on the faces of most ministers with some equally relaxed and taking it for granted to continue. Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan is working hard to become a spin-doctor. Support me and I will return the favour, is her commitment.
