Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Talking big... By Buttjee

Among the present leadership of the PPP, Babar Awan perhaps is the loudest mouth who always assumes the responsibility of a voluntary spokesman for his party, may be to earn recognition for his loyalty to the party which, till this day, remains questionable in the eyes of PPP's old stalwarts. Apparently, he has fortified his position in the party by rendering valuable services to the Presidency but his services for the party have often ended up as uncalled-for embarrassment.
As the self-appointed leader of the PPP's legal team, he has been charging hefty fees from the national exchequer. As the counsel for the federation in the Supreme Court, his handling of some of the important cases left much to be desired. The avoidable mess in which this government finds itself today is no doubt its own creation in which Babar Awan has a lion's share. Only yesterday, in his speech at Lahore, he was seen fuming at the PML-N. In his urge to be a solo performer on the rostrum he uttered many things which once again can be embarrassing for the PPP. His tirade against the PML-N was quite understandable because the PML-N has forced his party to face the bitter truth in the Supreme Court. However, his demand for forming commissions to probe the fall of East Pakistan, the Siachen issue and the Kargil fiasco, though likely aimed at underscoring the gravity of the issue at hand – the Memogate scandal, cannot be ignored by taking it as mere rhetoric.
The people of Pakistan always wanted to know the truth about these incidents and would still welcome forming of commissions to investigate the Siachen and Kargil issues. One wonders as to why Babar Awan has been waiting till this day to put forth this demand. His party has been in power for the last four years. I wonder why it never bothered to form such commissions. In case the PPP is not interested in probing these issues, I advise Babar Awan to muster some moral courage and take the matter to the Supreme Court in the larger public interest as has been done by the PML-N.
Buttjee Islamabad