HYDERABAD, Dec 23: The members of the PPP’s Awam Dost Panel created rumpus in the district council on Monday when an independent member presented a motion, congratulating Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Ali Mohammad Mahar on their election as the prime minister and the chief minister respectively.

The pandemonium began when Mohammad Yousuf Qureshi tabled the motion, saying Jamali and Mahar would try to continue the district government system in accordance with the true spirit of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance.

He said they would also ensure that this system was working without any hindrance from the province or the centre.

He hailed the announcement of Mahar regarding grant of Rs50 million each to district governments, reopening of 1,700 schools, elimination of chit system in government hospitals and computer fees in colleges and schools, availability of free medicines to TB patients, establishment of TB wards in hospitals, making education free in government schools, provision of dialysis machines in urology wards of government hospitals, restoration of peaceful atmosphere in the province and solution of problem of irrigation water.

When the chair referred the motion to the council for debate, the Awam Dost Panel members refused to adopt it.

However, a debate followed.

In his speech, Qureshi claimed if the members did not pass the resolution, they would breach the oath they had taken and the affidavits, they had filed with their nomination papers at the time of the local bodies election.

Councillor Saira Naseer, Dr Ayaz Qureshi, Q Mohammad Hakim, Majeed Wahidi and some other members supported the resolution.

The Jamaat-i-Islami’s Rana Mehmood Ali Khan said he would felicitate both the chief executives conditionally, arguing that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should keep only one office, restore the Constitution in its original form and the Legal Framework Order should not be made part of the Constitution.

Saira objected to the statement of Khan, saying congratulation should not be conditional.

Because of the pandemonium, the presiding officer, Meeran Mohammad Shah, adjourned the session till Tuesday.

Earlier, all the members staged a walk-out for a brief time to lodge their protest against failure of taluka councils in ensuring cleanliness in their talukas.

The members walked out of the council hall when a member, Majeed Qureshi, told the chair scenes of overflowing gutters and accumulation of sewage water on roads and in streets had become common.

He said the members had been raising voice for the solution of civic problems but no official concerned had taken notice of it.

Other members also supported him.

When they returned to the council, Tanvir Siddiqui, in his speech, said when he went to City Taluka Council Nazim Moinuddin Shaikh, he phoned the SHO to get him ousted from the council.

The chair referred a resolution of Shafqat Hussain Soho to the District Public Safety Commission (DPSC) for necessary action.

The resolution pertained to the alleged harassment of Ali Ahmad Khan Nizamani, the father of Karam Khan Nizamani union council Nazim Noor Mohammad, by the taluka police officer of Hala.