PRESS GALLERY – Divided opposition with no common agenda to pursue, government’s lackadaisical approach to parliamentary business and the members’ “who cares?” attitude with only forty-six – they too possibly having nothing else to do – attending the fourth sitting of the 28th session of the National Assembly convincingly support the proposal to right-size the parliament as well. And when it comes from within, it’s far more compelling.
As the House opened a debate on the economic situation in the country, PML-N’s Rana Tanveer referred to the non-development expenditure eating up the taxpayers’ money and proposed that the parliament also be “right-sized”. His argument was logical – after all why should the taxpayers pay for the members’ salaries, perks and privileges when they take the parliament lightly?
It’s not being misogynistic here, but the sixty seats reserved for women are certainly an extra burden on the kitty. An analysis of the political background, pedigree, individual talent and performance of most women parliamentarians explains it all. It’s also not that all of them have made no contribution. But the number of those who actually distinguished themselves in the largely male-dominated legislatures is very small – the rest are counted only in the numbers’ game.
The criterion to give the women representation in parliament with reserved seats is intrinsically unmerited. If the political parties “genuinely” feel and realize that the women should come into mainstream national politics, they should be elected on general seats – the qualitative difference between the elected and the selected will be far more distinctive than what has been observed since 2002 elections, if they too come through the mill.
Possibly the PPP and the PML-N’s engagement outside parliament to work out a national agenda has made others adopt a laissez-faire policy and stay away from parliament when it is not being considered a forum fit to prescribe with collective wisdom a remedy for the ills plaguing the country. The PML-Q and the MQM have also handed their agendas for reforms but it engaged only the PML-N – understandably a joint move to marginalize others and pave the way for a two-party system.
The unfortunate aspect of the situation is that the political parties are also unwilling to put their heads together and develop a working relationship on the basis of a common minimum agenda. The level of distrust among them is evidently clear from the bitterness and venom-spitting against each other – the PML-N hates the PML-Q like a despicable enemy who stabbed it in the back by joining General Musharraf’s bandwagon of opportunists; the PML-Q too has no love-lost for its mother party and the MQM detests the PML-N which despises it equally. The beneficiary of this acrimonious political divide is the PPP.
While the members, largely from the PML-N, painted a bleak picture of the economy and compared the lot of the common man living in poverty with the political elite enjoying every luxury under the sun, the PPP’s official mouthpiece brazenly portrayed a rosy picture with everything improving and nothing to worry about. It was her desperate attempt to be noticed and considered by her bosses for the position of next spin-doctor if the incumbent is on his way out in the cabinet shake-up. But she has no promoter to lobby for her.
Dr Spoiler, our mole says, is also aspiring for the title of HMV – His Master’s Voice. Though he miserably failed to succeed the slain governor, he has not relented. Climbing up the fourth floor of the cabinet division is his new target.
