FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

As you enter the third floor on way to the Press Gallery of the Senate a pathetic scene confronts you: Over a dozen buckets have been placed on a rolled-up carpet to catch the water that falls from the leaky roof creating tintinnabular sound. Like most of the northern regions of Pakistan the city of Islamabad is in the grip of winter monsoon. It is thoroughly drenched. No wonder some government buildings, constructed under the watchful supervision of government engineers, are leaking. And, their sogginess is all the more discomforting because these structures are also very cold.
However, on Monday that freezing cold did not dampen the spirits of the senators who generated adequate heat to warm up the otherwise cold evening. Even before the House could take up the 46-item agenda there were repeated bouts of sparring across the aisle, with some expressions being so biting that Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro expunged them. Journalists also stole some of show by staging their first walkout of the current session, protesting over booking of a Karachi newsman.
The proceedings started 45 minutes behind schedule. Before the floor was opened for discussion and debate, the chairman announced some rules of the game: No more cell phones in the House and in galleries, he ordered. And, no more talking by the members when the House is in order, also no newspaper reading and eating. If some members have to discuss something among themselves they should move out, he said. The drill he announced was consequent to the "feedback" he had received from the members.
Before the House opened its business the two sides had met in the chairman's office and had decided that before taking up the regular agenda the senators would be allowed to vent their feelings on issues of the individual or collective interest on points of order. The minister for parliamentary affairs, Sher Afgan Niazi, was perhaps not a privy to this understanding. So he earned quite a rebuke from Asfandyar Wali when the minister tried to interrupt Raza Rabbani, the leader of opposition.
In fact, the temperature was raised from the word go, when the very first speaker, Ali Ahmad of MQM, warned against what he called media campaign against his party ever since it announced opposition to military action in Balochistan. "Our party has a stand on Balochistan that military should not be used...We are an ally of the government, and would not like that there should be embarrassment to the President or the Prime Minister... It appears the situation like East Pakistan is being created."
Replying a point of order leader of the house Wasim Sajjad said the government is keen on finalising its position on Balochistan but he could not give a timeframe. To this Raza Rabbani counterpoised how could that work of the committee be completed when the government has not yet indicated as to what is its bottom-line of Balochistan situation. Then came another bombshell: the treasury member Ayaz Mandokhel claimed at all the members from Balochistan, howsoever forceful their stances on the issue on the floor of the house, are financial beneficiaries of Gwadar. Casting a glance at the front row where ministers were sitting he remarked "Even when one buys a cattle head he looks into its pedigree. But here among these ministers are the ones who cut as double-edged sword. They talk against the unrest but also receive 'bhata' from contractors."
That's why I had said in my speech the other day that of the 28 sardars in Balochistan 24 were sitting in the lap of the government, intoned firebrand Sanaullah Baloch. He said the Golden Palm scheme has disappeared from the pages of the newspapers after its promoters made their escape with over four and a half billion of public money. With it he bracketed another bunch of 14 housing scheme, which have been given NOC, for which he said the Prime Minister is responsible. Sana would not sit unless he would say something more alarming. Recent study, he said, gives Pakistan top position for target-killing incidents but the killers were never apprehended. "If Balochistan needs cantonment then Pakistan needs these much more", he added. As if what Ahmad Ali had said was not enough, his colleague Professor Saeed Siddiqui stood up to inform the House that conspiracies are being hatched to "destabilise" the government.
It was Raza Rabbani who raised the issue of raise in oil and gas prices. As he was on it, Sher Afgan interrupted him by saying that the member could not deliver a speech on a point of order. To this the chair observed that the minister should not interrupt because Raza's position was fully supported by an understanding reached in his office. But the minister refused to sit. At this Asfandyar Wali shouted: "Who runs the House-the chairman or the minister. If we were not heard then not even the father of somebody would not be allowed to speak."
While Raza Rabbani raised the issue of hike of petroleum products' prices, Professor Khursheed Ahmad added by pointing out that privatisation of the KESC is very disturbing. But, concerned minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh was there to respond, and that he did very ably. He even accepted the opposition's demand for a fuller debate on the privatisation of the Karachi power leviathan.
Given the late start of the Senate proceedings the mediamen, driven by tight deadlines, find them inadequate to do justice to the work of this upper house. For most of them it remains a mystery as to why the senators would like to meet late in the evening!