LAHORE-Ex-Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmed was on Thursday notified as Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly after Ch Zaheeruddin Ahmad of PML-Q resigned on Wednesday.
After remaining part of the Treasury for three years, Raja, perhaps, is the only Parliamentarian in country’s political history, who will be playing the role of Opposition leader for remaining period of the same Assembly.
It will be interesting to watch how a person, who has been defending all the rights and wrongs of the govt until recently, will take a U-turn to criticise the same govt during the upcoming Assembly session.
Though Raja has already done some rehearsal for his new role by taking on Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif by coming up with 19-point agenda, the gentleman needs to have good lessons for improving his communication skills as his party has better speaking PPP men of this stature. As Senior Punjab Minister, an office equivalent to Deputy Chief Minister, Raja failed to establish his credentials as a mature politician, besides having serious problems of being an articulate speaker at any stage.
Certainly, it was part of the understanding that neither Punjab Chief Minister nor bureaucracy ever took him seriously. He was often made to wait for many days, like a commoner, to meet the CM, while the Shahbaz’s chosen men sitting at the Civil Secretariat were least bothered by his presence, and never felt the need to actualise his ‘instructions’..
For a treasury led by shrewd politician Rana Sanaullah, Raja will certainly be bowled out pretty cheaply, if not on the first ball as the Opposition leader.
He might be going to nets – standing tall in front of a mirror to drill tricks of oratory – but his batting paraphernalia is certainly not going to help since many believe it will be difficult for him to hold argument with the Law Minister from Faisalabad, who also happens to be a practicing lawyer, known for his punchy speeches and sharp sentences as Deputy Opposition Leader in the previous Assembly. Raja enjoys no reputation as such except being of a big fellow occupying a larger bench than his actual size. No doubt, the Parliamentary traditions have thinned to almost nothingness over a period, but the office of Opposition leader requires sobriety, analytical mind and force of argument to do justice with the assignment.
Source: The Nation
