December 18, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 13, 1423

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KARACHI, Dec 17: The People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPAs boycotted on Tuesday the Sindh Assembly session, called for seeking confidence vote by the chief minister, in protest over speaker’s attitude.

The rumpus began when the Speaker, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, ruled out of order a point of order of PPP parliamentary leader Nisar Khuhro, who had questioned the manner in which the speaker had conducted ascertainment of support for the leader of the house on Monday and was comparing it with the past traditions.

The speaker had no control over the members and he had to seek refuge under warnings which he frequently issued to the members to bring the House in order.

Khuhro’s contention was that the speaker should have also put the motions, in his favour, in the House and ascertainment for both the candidates for the top slot should have been taken.

The speaker was quick enough to grasp the thrust of the point of order, and said that “ascertainment is taken once.” When the majority was proved on the first motion there was no requirement to put forth the other motion, he said.

Shah then referred to the ascertainment taken during 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1996 and contented that the procedure had always been so.

The Sindh Assembly speaker explained that if Mahar had received less than 85 votes, he would have then taken up the other motion in favour of Khuhro.

But as Khuhro was insistent, the speaker ruled out the point of order. The PPP leader, nevertheless, continued and submitted that when Shah was elected chief minister, there was no opponent. To put the record straight, he said when Liaquat Ali Jatoi was elected, the speaker (Nawab Mirza of the MQM) put both the motions before the House.

But the speaker was not prepared to accept his contention, which sparked protest from the PPP and the MMA MPAs who kept on shouting and criticising the speaker.

As the speaker was unable to bring order, the PPP-MMA legislators kept on protesting and finally staged a walkout against what they called the “dictatorial” attitude of the chair.

As the opposition MPAs were leaving the House, the speaker, in a haste, proceeded with the motion pertaining to the vote of confidence.

While the rumpus was on, Syed Sardar Ahmed of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Irfanullah Marwat of the Sindh Democratic Alliance read out the motions of confidence.

Later, talking to newsmen along with MMA’s parliamentary leader Maulana Umar Sadiq, Khuhro said they had come to the House with a view to participate in the proceedings but the attitude of the speaker was unacceptable and not according to democratic norms and traditions.

According to him, it was a normal session and the vote of confidence could have been obtained on any other day.

Khuhro pointed out that he, along with Dr Sikandar Ali Mendhro and Ghulam Qadir Chandio, had also deposited adjournment motions to the speaker, which pertained to the failure of sugar mills to start crushing of sugarcane, causing loss to the growers.

Reading out from the printed proceedings of the Sindh Assembly, Khuhro claimed that Shah made a wrong statement in the House when he said that during Liaquat Jatoi’s election only his motions were put to the House.

Angry Nisar Khuhro claimed that “when we pointed out to the speaker his mistake, Mr Shah tried to muffle the voice of the opposition like a dictator.”

While the opposition leaders were expressing their views, Dr Arbab Rahim of the National Alliance, Irfanullah Marwat (SDA), Shoaib Bokhari of the MQM and Sadaruddin Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-F tried to pacify them and take them back into the House.

But the enraged opposition members refused to go back because they felt they had been deliberately insulted by the speaker, who, during the earlier session, had bulldozed attempts to seek immediate remedy pertaining to police excesses on Saturday and, as a result, more than 70 MPAs were taken hostage for several hours and an MPA was arrested from within the assembly premises.

To give vent to their sentiments, PPP supporters kept on chanting slogans against the turncoats.