The national assembly ran two sessions today. Not much was acheived in either of them. “Count the quorum,” chorused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members of National Assembly, as the official session commenced.
“We were meant to discuss the floods and the terror attack in Balochistan today, please sit down,” pleaded NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq as the PTI members moved towards the exit.
On a day, when Punjab is reeling from over two weeks of relentless, uninterrupted flooding, and the country is overwhelmed with residual damage from recent deathly floods in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, the opposition and the government could not set aside their personal disdain for each other long enough to take up the day’s agenda.
Thousands of citizens across the country have been displaced. They are cramped in make shift tents and government schools, where bathroom facilities are scarce and food supply is limited. Livestock has been uprooted and vast acres of agricultural land devastated.
Read: Did India deliberately flood Pakistan?
This monsoon season, which began on June 16, has claimed 884 lives and injured at least 1,176. In Buner, entire families have perished in landslides triggered by torrential rain while across Punjab entire villages have been uprooted.
Elsewhere, in Balochistan, there has been a spate of terror attacks in recent months with the most recent taking earlier this week, when a suicide bomber decimated 15 civilans in Quetta near a poltical rally. The attacker had meant to target the rally taken out by Balochistan National Party (BNP)-Mengal in protest of Balochistan Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Dr Mahrung Baloch and other Baloch political leaders’ arrest, and a police crackdown on ongoing sit-ins. Quetta District authorities had reportedly denied BNP-Mengal lisence to hold the rally.
Yet, our elected legislators, members of National Assembly, continue their staunch tradition of letting intra party disputes stand higher than national concerns.
Federal Law Minister Azam Tarar accused the PTI of being “selfish” and positioning their political ambitions above the “country’s needs”.
Yet, when PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan drew attention to the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) performance during the floods, live feed of the session was disrupted on the state broadcaster’s channel.
Khan ignored the law minister and marched down the aisle, exiting with the rest of the opposition lawmakers. Khan said this was part of PTI’s continued boycott of the house and set up his party’s own impromptu assembly outside the parliament premises. Asad Qaiser led the proceedings during this “awami assembly” – as they put it. Here, a “resolution” was passed to extend the deadline for repatriation of Afghan citizens. Those privy to the matter remain unaware of this “assembly’s” jurisdiction.
Speaker Sadiq took this opportunity to remind the house that PTI complains of not being given space to put forth their views before the house and yet, were leaving now when they had the floor.
As water heads downstream from Multan to Sindh, it is apparent that the public cannot look to the country’s leaders for comfort. Are these the people’s representatives who will lead us out of disaster as the country grapples with climate change and a resurgance in terrorism?
With additional reporting by Chaudhry Waqas
