It is said about England’s House of Commons that if you are looking for the highly educated persons, cream of England’s society you sit in the public gallery of England’s House of Commons and listen its members speak that is why the quality of debate in that forum is of a very high standard. Small wonder such exceptionally excellent parliamentarians like Disraeli, Gladstone, Winston Churchill and Macmillan, to mention a few, were its members once, that tradition is still being followed to a great extent. The quality of legislation passed by House of Commons speaks for itself since long the speeches delivered in that forum are being published every month in the form of a booklet billed as Hansard which, in itself, is a piece of literature worth reading by the students of political science.
It is now quite sometime that the proceedings in the House of Commons are being telecast live also but one remembers that when this idea of showing the proceedings of that House live was mooted a lot of members of that House weren’t in its favour as they were apprehensive that the eye of camera might catch them in undesirable position that might grate on the viewers like yawning etc. etc. but despite that opposition a majority of members of that House voted in favour of live telecast of its proceedings
Once a prominent leader of ANP Khan Abdul Wali Khan had told me that his father Abdul Ghaffar Khan , popularly known as Bacha Khan had sent his son Abdul Ghanj Khan to London with specific direction and desire that he should attend at least for one year the sessions of the House of Commons by sitting in its public gallery just for observing that how does its proceedings are conducted by its Speaker and in which manner its members speak and put forth their view point. Bacha Khan wanted to launch Ghanj khan as a politician It is another matter that Ghani wasn’t politician material and instead he plumbed for painting and poetry and made a name for himself as a poet and painter..
This country too had in the past seen some very good Parliamentarians who were not only good Speakers having a lot of command on different languages but were highly read ,to boot. Mention can be made of Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy, Mian Mumtaz Daultana, Abdul Wali Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Maulvi Farid, Abdul Samad Achakzai ,Aurangzeb Khan Gandapoor. It was a treat to listen to them while they expressed their views on national issues in Parliament. It is a pity that lately, standard of debate has fallen considerably in our assemblies.
