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Shocking thrashing of Arbab
IT was shocking rather humiliating to watch the manhandling of former
Chief Minister Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim by furious and rowdy PPP
activists in and outside the Assembly Hall when he came to take oath.
This and related incidents on Monday ashamed all the democracy loving
people as emotionally charged workers tortured and abused not only Arbab
Rahim but female MPAs of MQM too were subjected to discourtesies at the
gate of the Provincial Assembly.
These incidents virtually destroyed the political tranquillity in the
Province created by the extraordinary efforts made by Co-Chairman of the
party Asif Ali Zardari after his visit to the MQM headquarters. It
prompted boycott of the proceedings of the House by all the political
parties except PPP and the ANP. Of course President Pervez Musharraf and
Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani have condemned the incident and
ordered an inquiry but the customary inquiry would in no way be helpful
to remove this black spot from our parliamentary history. The former
Chief Minister would have suffered more if the security personnel had
not whisked him away. Though Asif Zardari is reported to have taken
strong exception to the incident and directed that those responsible
should be punished yet the damage has been done. It would have been
better yet after first day’s happenings in the House, extraordinary
precautions would have been taken but the way Jayalas managed to enter
the premises even without cards speaks of something fishy. The
misbehaviour with the female MPAs cannot be condoned which also forced
the MQM to boycott the proceedings and it caused delay in the opening of
the session. This has created a bad blood among two main parties of the
Province as MQM leader Saleem Shehzad has, in an interview, already
stated that his party too can bring thousands of workers to the
Provincial Assembly. The happenings in the Sindh Assembly have evoked
concern among the democratic forces. We wish that the political workers
and leaders should have learnt some lessons from the past mistakes and
the new leadership must keep in mind that this sort of incidents serve
as FIR and could result in the derailing of the political process.
