The manner in which on Thursday two MNAs behaved outside the National Assembly can be expected from street urchins, but not from members of the nation’s highest legislative forum. According to reports, first, PTI’s legislator, Murad Saeed, criticized the Punjab government over alleged racial profiling of Pashtuns in the ongoing counter-terrorism operation. Trouble started when instead of responding to the issue, a ruling party MNA, Mian Javed Latif, began denigrating PTI Chairman Imran Khan for his controversial remarks about foreign cricketers who had participated in the Pakistan Super League’s final in Lahore, calling him a traitor of the order of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Unsurprising, at this all PTI members rose in protest, but sat back on the Deputy Speaker’s assurance that they would have the opportunity to respond. That though did not happen. The session was abruptly adjourned, leaving the two MNAs to settle scores outside the House.
What followed was simply shameful. The two MNAs, of course, have their own versions of who said what, but for all to see was that Murad Saeed waited at the exit for Javed Latif to come out and threw a punch at him. Arguably, people are expected to react badly to verbal abuse, but in this case it clearly was not a heat of the moment action and hence deserves to be condemned in strongest possible terms. Indeed, there are examples from other countries of parliamentarians coming to blows over political issues. Unfortunately, things got from bad to worse when the Nawaz League legislator turned the issue from the political to the personal. At a formal media talk outside Parliament House, he used unprintable innuendos about the PTI MNA’s sisters. Under no circumstances such conversation, all the more so, from a member of Parliament can be acceptable. It is good to note that Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has constituted a six-member committee comprising legislators from different parties to examine the matter and assign responsibility. Hopefully, the committee will come up with recommendations that ensure no legislator will ever cross the limits of parliamentary language and behaviour.
As for the subject that sparked off the incident, the PTI Chairman needs to be careful in making comments on issues of public interests, such as the quality of foreign cricketers in the PSL. Many cricket enthusiasts among his party supporters too were disappointed to hear him uttering disparaging remarks about foreign players who came to Pakistan despite security concerns. Even as he remains unregretful, Imran has tried to justify his comments saying one, that the words he used for the players are common sports jargon; and second, he was talking to an informal gathering and hence what he said was not meant for general consumption. Expectedly, he now realizes that for people in public life nothing remains private, and would be more circumspect in future while speaking his mind.
