ISLAMABAD: It was a day for voting on the government’s budgetary demands in the National Assembly on Wednesday but Gullu Butt of Lahore overshadowed the first part of the session.
At least it seemed so for every now and then some MNA, mostly from the opposition benches, would stand up and ask the ruling PML-N to disclose the identity of Gullu Butt, the man caught on video by television channels smashing private cars during the bloody police crackdown on Allama Tahirul Qadri’s followers outside his Minhajul Quran Secretariat in Lahore the previous day.
No sooner Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was finished with the formality of seeking approval of his ‘demands for grants’, three opposition woman MNAs sprang to their feet to demand the treasury benches to tell if Gullu Butt was a PML-N worker as speculated.
Dr Shireen Mazari of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Dr Nafeesa Shah and Shazia Marri of the PPP, all in one voice raised queries about Gullu Butt, whom media have reported an office bearer of the local PML-N chapter.
Dar claims he doesn’t know any Gullu or Ullu Butt
Dr Nafeesa Shah was spot on when she asked the government to clear its position with regard to the Lahore incident and Gullu Butt because, “front pages of today’s newspapers show as if battlefield has shifted from North Waziristan to Lahore where police have killed people in broad daylight.”
The politician from Sindh said if this was the government’s plan to beef up national internal security, then the opposition was right in demanding cuts in the budgetary allocations the government has included in the budget in the name of security.
Though she wasn’t allowed time to speak, Dr Mazari of the PTI demanded a statement on Gullu Butt from the government side.
Dr Mazari claimed that Mr Butt had vandalized private vehicles on the instructions of the provincial government.
Ms Marri too wasn’t provided time by the speaker. She wanted a statement on Gullu Butt by some government minister. The house should be informed about the whereabouts of Gullu Butt.
Sheikh Rashid of Rawalpindi equated the Lahore incident with the famous Jallianwala Bagh massacre under the British rule when British army opened fire on peaceful protesters back in 1919 in Amritsar.
According to Mr Rashid this time the Punjab government had made a major crime which it wouldn’t be able to wish away.
Dr Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon of PTI lawmaker from Abbottabad, informed the house how a child in his family surprised him with a question about Gullu Butt.
“The child asked me whether as a sitting member of the National Assembly I am more powerful than Gullu Butt and frankly speaking I have no answer to his innocent querry.”
If this trend continued, next generation will fantasize Gullu Butts than law-abiding citizens of the country, warned Mr Jadoon.
However, in response Senator Dar angrily retorted, saying, once the Punjab government had constituted a judicial commission to investigate the incident, legislators sitting in the house should wait for its outcome.
“I don’t know who is this Gullu or Ullu (owl) Butt, however, since a judicial inquiry is underway everybody should wait for its findings.”
The MQM members of the National Assembly attended the session with black armbands, as the party had declared one day mourning to protest the Lahore incident.
Unlike routine days, on Wednesday opposition front rows of the National Assembly were empty as main leadership of the PTI was in Lahore to show solidarity with Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT).
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2014
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