Letter from Lahore: MPAs show no improvement in manners

Hopes that the condition of a graduation degree, and the presence of over 70 women in the house would result in an element of decorum entering the traditionally unruly Punjab Assembly were quickly dashed during the opening sessions of the house.

Both, as the MPAs took oath and later met to elect the speaker, the deputy speaker and the chief minister, scenes of chaos dominated the proceedings of the largest Provincial Assembly.

While objections to the Legal Framework Order (LFO) were justified, the tone and manner in which some of the exchanges have taken place augurs ill for the future sessions of the province's highest law-making body.

Parliamentarians in the Assembly directed a series of ribald remarks at newly-elected Speaker Afzal Sahi soon after he was elected, and the usually soft-spoken Sahi eventually had to resort to shouting at the top of his rather high-pitched voice in an attempt to maintain some order.

The outgoing speaker and Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, faced similar problems when he presided over the inaugural meeting of the assembly. The fact that even members of Elahi's own PML-QA directed a series of remarks against each other and against Elahi, comes as a suggestion that handling the MPAs will be no easy task for the new provincial chief.

The situation that arose also suggested the degree of indiscipline and lack of harmony within the PML-QA, with quite clearly no strategy in place on how to act in the assembly.

This in fact was sharply in contrast to the discipline shown in the past by PML members siding with Shahbaz Sharif, a man who was able to keep an iron hold on members of his party.

The level of the debate and its tendency to disintegrate quickly into an exchange of abuse, indicated too that the women present in the house had had no impact in altering this rather unfortunate tradition in the Punjab legislature.

Indeed, in the past, schools seeking to take children to view a session of the assembly as a learning experience have been advised by veteran members of the house to avoid this, lest the pupils learn far more than was intended, at least in terms of their vocabulary in the Punjabi language.

MPAs themselves have in the past also stood up at times to suggest that 'lady journalists' present during proceedings leave the assembly as the language being used was "not appropriate for their ears."

Thoughts of avoiding the use of such language however appear not to have entered in to thinking despite appeals from senior leaders known for the eloquence of their speech.

It is obvious too that the graduation condition had no impact on raising the level of discussion, with the clothes donned by opponents and the cars they drove up in, both seen as fit subjects to raise in the house.

Indeed, it would seem that with the arrival of many new, inexperienced members in the house, the level has sunk still further, with many of them unaware of the protocol expected and with considerable anxiety seen on the part of first timers to get a word in at the proceedings regardless of its relevance.

It is as such hard to see the present assembly making a significant improvement on the track record of those that came before it.

Certainly, the pattern for future sessions seems already to have been set and it is also clear that the speaker will have his hands full as he attempts to keep a check on the house and ensure everyone is given a chance to voice their views, including those not willing to join in the general melee where MPAs seem engaged in an attempt to out shout others, leading to scenes of chaos and reducing proceedings to little more than total mayhem.