Launch of red book and Bash’s disclosures

By Saeed Minhas

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians who had gathered to discuss the president's address to the joint sitting were instead given a red book extolling the parliament's achievements in the past two years, with promises that things will look even rosier, at least on paper, in the days to come.

Although there was no mention of the fact that throughout these two years, parliament has never started its proceedings on time, the average delay in each proceeding has been over 30 minutes and quorum in 90 percent of the sittings has never been more than 20 percent against the requirement of 25 percent. Still the report highlights everything that pleases Premier Gilani and irritates Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar. But, a confidante of the incumbent speaker Fehmida Mirza reminded me that with all her journalistic management skills, the speaker is working on the issue. I was left with no option but to reply that she might also be looking for a good report writer to mitigate such an image in her own up-coming booklet.

As a political pundit commented on the available red book that over a billion rupees funded the projection by the Information Ministry to highlight the promises, policy and performance of the incumbent government, it is likely to create more ripples in the calm waters of the national polity than is already being done by load shedding, price hike, unemployment, corruption, good governance and the judiciary all put together.

Mentioning the judiciary and the Khakis as if they are being marshalled around at the sweet will of the government has already been taken very seriously by all those who matter in these two powerful institutions of the country, he added. In a bid to take credit for the restoration of judges and launching of Rah-e-Raast and Rah-e-Nijaat, the self-acclaimed authors of the hefty booklet might not even know how many big-wigs they have irked in the process of doing so and what ammunition they have provided to all those looking towards both the chiefs for bringing about a change as per their wicked desires.

Of course there are certain self contradictory claims made in the book, the prime one being the appointment of judges to the superior courts as per the principles of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) so as "to make it impossible to appoint judges according to the sweet will of the party in power or the chief justice in office". Down the lines the booklet reads, "However the Constitutional Reforms Committee dropped the condition to appoint a non-Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) judge as the chairperson of the judicial commission in view of the contribution of the incumbent chief justice of Pakistan", and then it narrates the method devised by the Constitutional Reforms Committee as we already know. Whether the authors were trying to remind the CJP of something or telling us that the CoD could not be implemented because of some last-minute exigencies remained elusive to many like me in the galleries.

No doubt, parliament needs to be given credit for bringing about a consensus among all political parties on not only the appointment of judges, but also on provincial autonomy, the NFC Award and even the National Command and Control Authority, but what about the petitions pending in the superior courts where many of these things, especially the judges appointment issue, stand challenged, asked a veteran jiyala.

As if this cafeteria talk about the two-year performance report was not enough, a conversation with the old comrade and family friend of the Bhutto family, Bashir Riaz known commonly as Bash, plunged all the scribes into a new direction altogether since he was upset with some federal ministers and Fatima Bhutto for distorting history.

Despite being under medication and not feeling well, his call was put on the speakerphone as he wanted to reach out to the media to correct history, which according to him was being trampled by some ignorant high ups of the government and the step-daughter of Ghinwa Bhutto. He was at a loss to understand as to why some federal ministers were creating confusion over the assassination incident of their martyred leader. "What was the reason for saying that the black Mercedes should not have left the scene of the assassination?" He further asked the media corps why it was being said by one of the incumbents of that black car that he was not a firefighter or trained rescue person? Sounding upset by the remarks of another member of the federal cabinet, he asked "who gave him the permission to claim that the former first lady of Pakistan and wife of ZAB, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, was terminally ill, how many times has he seen or met her in his political career after joining the party?" He prayed that someone would inform them of the basics of dealing with the media and hoped that until the completion of the inquiry by the joint investigation team, someone would advise them not to comment on anything which they cannot prove.

About Fatima Bhutto, Bash said that unfortunately, the bright youngster was playing in the hands of people like Sethi who in fact misguided her father (Murtaza Bhutto) after the death of ZAB and took him to Kabul and indulged in all sorts of "subversive activities". He disclosed that Farooq Leghari wanted him to be a state witness against President Asif Zardari, "but since I knew that Asif was not involved in Murtaza's murder, how could I even think of accepting Leghari's offer". But will anyone listen to the man who has been doing the media management of the Bhuttos since the 1970s, asked a colleague. I am sure they are so busy in making themselves paper tigers that they don't have time for the comrade, so chill out Bash; they tend to listen only when they come crashing to the ground.