Kur Rahain Hein, Karain Gay, Ho Jai Gaa: End of story

[LahoreEstate]

Only yesterday, Leader of the Opposition Ch Nisar had thrown an angry spanner in the works by denying Sherry Rehman an opportunity to get a House resolution condemning the overall extremist excesses in Swat and the tribal areas but in particular rejecting the Taliban threat of closing all female schools in Swat area. And what had started off by Nisar as a rejection of the ongoing litany of resolutions had then turned into him going starboard on the Presidency.

Tuesday however proved a different start altogether. Shortly after the commencement of the sitting, the federal information minister managed to get her resolution adopted but apparently not without some last minute hitches. At one point I saw my friend Dr Donya Aziz walk over and have a few words with the prime minister who then got Sherry involved into the whisper-conference and you could tell that neither Sherry nor Donya appeared all that chummy at the time. Thanks to a nearby eves-dropper we now have an ear-witness account of what transpired between the three.

Apparently Dr Donya, an active member of the recently formed women caucus of lady MNAs, wanted the resolution to be moved by the caucus as it primarily pertained to the female education issue and conveyed her sentiments to the prime minister. And the prime minister, after getting Sherry into the conversation, asked Donya to hand over her draft so that Sherry could maybe blend the two and present the same before the House. But guess what, Donya and her friends had not even penned a draft, so Sherry got to move hers and have a happy ending to her story. So lesson number one dear Dr Donya: make sure your own paperwork is in place before you want to displace that of another. By the way, why isn’t Sherry Rehman a member of that caucus? Ladies, we need to know who is ignoring who here.

On a serious note however, regardless of who got the credit, it was an important resolution to adopt because already the highly powerful US based National Organisation of Women (NOW) has made a lot of fuss about the Pakistani Parliament’s silence on the issue of denial of educational and other rights to women by Taliban and other extremists and if Gloria Steinem — a big time American feminist activist —were to have her way then a continued silence, implying tacit complicity, could form perfectly legitimate grounds for some severe punitive sanctions against Pakistan. So while personally I am sick and tired of the House shooting off one hollow resolution after another, I am still glad it passed this one.

So here’s to another necessary, even if hollow, resolution passed in an otherwise painfully boring session which by the way is the norm every Tuesday. You see, Tuesday has been designated as a Private Member’s day which in theory means that any legislator can move any legislation in his or her individual capacity and take up issues of importance in a priority of their own and not that forced by the government’s agenda. Sounds great in theory doesn’t it? But real life is a different story my friends.

If you want to have a fair idea of the import attached to the ordinary MNAs by the government of the day, just drop in on a Private Members Day (a weekly fixture) and you’ll know what I mean. The ministers don’t bother turning up as there is no Question Hour mandating the attendance of at least the relevant ministers (and even a Question is not guaranteed to ensure attendance but still).

Even at the best of times today, this number never went over ten and that too only till the time the prime minister remained in the House. And no ministers in the House mean no signing of the zillion applications and transfer orders carried around by MNAs, which means the MNAs too don’t bother turning up. Today also, the number of MNAs never crossed the 100 mark which dropped to exactly 54 MNAs including four federal ministers during the last hour and half of the sitting. (I know because I counted). And if you think I am exaggerating then here’s a small sample of what the power corridors really think of a members day.

The House was to continue its debate on the killing price-hike in the country affecting the lives of millions of citizens on a daily basis and judging from the past trend, emphasis would continue to remain on ministries of finance, natural resources, agriculture, and planning. And what happens when the country’s National Assembly takes up the most important and critical issue of inflation and economic morass? People who matter don’t even bother turning up even to listen, let alone respond. The Adviser on Finance Shaukat Tarin, Petroleum man Dr Asim, Chairman Planning Commission and MNA, Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, none of them were there. And since they weren’t there, one would be a moron to expect the grade 22 Secretaries of their respective ministries or their underlings in turn, to grace the galleries with their presence.

So the expected happened as one MNA after another fumed and foamed, moaned and groaned, huffed and puffed, but no one could bring down this house of official nonchalance.

The best line came from the rustic Ch Tanveer (PML-N) who said that the government ministers only gave flexible deadlines and never delivered anything concrete, adding “whenever you ask them the ministers repeated one of the three following mantras; Kur Rahain Hein, Karain Gay, Ho Jai Gaa”. (we are doing it. We will do it. It will happen). So true isn’t it?

But while the majority of the ministers may be parroting the three mantras, the federal Environment Minister, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, proved a pleasant exception. In fact, while responding to a very important call attention notice on the rapid deforestation of the country, it was the minister who deliberately revealed more than the movers themselves. Afridi was dead on when he said that unless the provincial governments played ball there wasn’t much that he could do.

He informed the House that during the past few years alone, over 155,915 hectares (over 300,000 acres of land) of forest land had been doled away by provincial government for non-forest use such as housing colonies etc. Punjab gave away 36,000+hectares (largest chunk going to army), NWFP gifted 2,678 hectares (which were palmed off to cronies and friends of past army ruler including the near and dear ones of JUI Chief Fazlur Rehman and were in the news reports), and the previous Balochistan government had given away 5,544 hectares to Air Force (but the allocation has thankfully been cancelled by the incumbent government). So for starters, one can safely assume that if the army and Air Force stopped taking over forest lands, their abstaining would help improve country’s environment (pun intended).

The minister went on to highlight the various methods being used by the exceptionally strong timber mafia, including orchestrating of discretional legislation to suit their needs. He told of how over 5 million feet of top quality timber had been cut and was lying in government control while the timber mafia was making attempts to buy it with backhanded methods.

Let’s hope the minister gets to do what he claims wanting to achieve. And who knows he just may. After all he is the same man who survived the three-day resign-pay 5 million-or die deadline of the infamous Mangal Bagh. So if he can outlive Mangal maybe he can withstand the juicy offers of the timber mafia. I know it sounds improbable but miracles do happen you know.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=158284