It is not unusual for budget debates in the National Assembly to be noisy. When the PML(N) government’s last budget was presented by then Finance Minister Miftah Ismail PTI legislators kept shouting throughout his speech. It was highly condemnable that this time the PTI lawmakers, led by some of the federal ministers, blocked the speech of the Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif for three consecutive days, allowing him to speak only on the fourth day. They raised slogans, blew whistles, mocked opposition leaders, hurled invective and advanced towards the Opposition Leader’s seat threatening to physically stop him from delivering the address. Instead of stopping the noisy crowd and bringing the situation under control, the Speaker stopped the proceedings and adjourned the House every day. What happened on Tuesday made it a black day for democracy. The Treasury members threw copies of the budget document on the opposition members. A PTI MNA, who is also a Special Assistant to the PM, went haywire and tried to attack an opposition MNA while hurling most dirty expletives.
While opposition leaders strongly denounced the use of foul language, it appeared that political backwardness was not confined to the PTI alone. A PML(N) parliamentarian from Lahore claimed that a resort to foul language is a part of Punjab’s culture.
The gentleman, it appears, had never read outstanding Punjabi writers and Sufi poets who consistently oppose bigotry and narrow-mindedness, preach values like tolerance and respect for human beings irrespective of their social status or creed, all in the most chaste language. In Punjab, as in other parts of the world, only those resort to foul language who have lost the argument and are keen to settle the dispute by recourse to violence. The National Assembly is not a place to hold free style wrestling bouts. It is an institution where laws are made by winning over opponents through arguments. A good politician is one who is able to develops consensus by arguing his case dispassionately while disagreeing politely with those holding a different view. There is a need for all political parties to end the toxic culture currently prevailing not only in the National Assembly but also in their own parties, where leaders lack gender sensitivity and freely use foul language about one another’s mothers, sisters and daughters, justifying it as a part of their cultural mores.
