Adil Najam
Disgraceful behavior by Pakistani politicians is not restricted to our Federal Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights Chaudhry Mohammad Wasi Zafar… see the earlier ATP post accounting his ‘encounters’ with lawlessness.
It turns out that a certain Mr. Abid Ali Umang, MNA from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has similarly confused ideas about what the ‘priviliges’ of being a politician should be. This is how Dawn (16 July, 2006) describes the events under the headline ‘MNA carrying gun creates scene at airport’:
Unruly scenes were witnessed at the Islamabad airport’s VIP Rawal Lounge on Friday night when a parliamentarian belonging to the ruling coalition insisted on carrying a firearm aboard and hurled threats at the Airport Security Force (ASF) official on duty. Sources said Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) MNA Abid Ali Umang along with his colleague MNA Mohammad Pervez Qureshi arrived at the Rawal Lounge to take a PIA flight (PK-319) to Karachi. The two legislators were allowed to enter the lounge without a security check after they identified themselves as MNAs. However, when the ASF official on duty inquired about the contents of a bag carried by Mr Umang, the latter replied: “There is a pistol in the bag.� The ASI told the lawmaker that carrying firearms was strictly prohibited, therefore, he could not proceed.
This infuriated the MNA and he entered into a fiery dialogue with the ASF official. Later, the ‘protestingà¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ MNA was also joined by his colleague. As tension mounted, the ASF chief security officer rushed to the scene at around 10:30pm and settled the issue through talks. The security chief also tender an apology to the minister and transferred the ASF official to some other section of the airport. The sources also quoted the MNA as saying that he would move a privilege motion in the National Assembly if the ASI concerned was not dismissed from service.
Meanwhile, the MNAs never made it aboard the Karachi-bound flight as they were not holding confirmed tickets.
I am certainly glad that they did not board the plane with the gun. I do think that a privilege motion (or some sort of a motion) should be moved in the Assembly on this incident. But it should be against the two MNAs and to commend the ASI.
Please, don’t anyone tell me that this proves that we are not ready for real democracy. No. This does not mean that at all. It only means that we have to start electing a better set of people and it means that we still have people like the ASI in this case who are willing to stand up for law and justice; even if the Minister in-charge of that portfolio is not.
My thanks to Talha Masood (blog: My cosmos…) for altering me to this news through a post in Metroblog Islamabad.
And these people are elected to govern us?
I feel ashamed of being a pakistani. I wish someone would teach these people a lesson and shut them up for good.
HJ, I realize they have the right to carry arms and I think there is some system of them being granted a certain number of gun liscences. But I assume they do NOT have the right to carry them on a plane just becasue they were elected. Am I wrong?
Errr….you guys DO know that it is legal for so-called lawmakers to carry arms – as insane as it sounds. What the ASF ASI could have done is to ask the honorable (not) MNA to “deposit” his weapon to him and collect it at the VIP lounge in Karachi. Airguards or the flight crew could have “held” the damn thing for the *uckwit onroute to Karachi. I won’t even get into a debate about weapons and how many in Pakistan feel that their manhood depends on the bore of the “saaman” they travel with. The less said the better. Next election, I am going to ask all law-abiding Pakistanis to vote only for candidates without firearms – guess how many will then make to Islamabad!
HJ
Well the ASI did what he had to do under those circumstances but I am amazed by the action taken by the ASF chief security officer! Instead of supporting the officer on duty, he apologized to the so called minister. This is being so disloyal to his duty and being disrespectful to his staff. I salute the ASI for doing his job fearlessly. In my opinion, the ASF chief security officer should also be dragged into an inquiry for his irresponsible action. Nobody allowed him to put the security at risk for anyone??? What to say about these MNAs and their unprofessional and uneducated behaviors? I wonder with this kind of outlook, they still want people to follow them. That’s insane!
Need of the day: Nip the evil in the bud :)
Asad, nice line, Reminds me of the Churchil line about ‘War being too serious a matter to entrust to the military’. I guess we have got it right in Paksitan. The miitary messes up our politics so that the politicians can’t ;-)