|
|
|
| May 7, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1424 |
Pandemonium breaks out in AJK Assembly
MUZAFFARABAD, May 6: The legislative assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir here on Tuesday resounded with slogans against Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid by the angry opposition, forcing him to adjourn the session within half-an-hour of its commencement.
“No Speaker No, Go Speaker Go”, shouted the opposition legislators rhythmically as they gathered in front of the speaker’s rostrum to protest against their “victimization by the government and the partisan attitude of the speaker”.
The pandemonium was created after opposition’s Sahibzada Ishaq Zafar began a highly-charged speech as soon as recitation from the holy Quran finished.
He castigated the government for “persistently ignoring the opposition” and alleged that the un-elected ruling party leaders had been given control of every affair in the constituencies of opposition MLAs.
“We showed tolerance and cooperated with the government for the supremacy of the Constitution and strengthening of the democratic norms and parliamentary system in the AJK, but the government has pushed us to the wall,” he alleged.
The opposition legislators, he said, were being constantly denied of their share in uplift schemes and other funds.
“The government is not giving any weight to the (opinion of) elected representatives and instead the defeated persons have been accorded the status of minister,” he said in a clear reference to prime minister’s special adviser Raja Farooq Haider, whom Sahibzada had defeated in the elections.
“In such a situation, what is the use of an elected assembly? If it gets dissolved, let it be so. We will not go home alone, but they (government) will also go,” he observed.
In a bid to stop him, the speaker held that Sahibzada was not speaking on a point of order and he was bound to run the house in accordance with the rules.
The chair also contradicted him when Sahibzada remarked that the government itself had no regards for merit and was blatantly violating the rules to adjust its favourites.
“Mr speaker, you are muzzling our voice because you have become partisan and you attends the meeting of the parliamentary party. You should resign,” Sahibzada said. The speaker answered that he would not resign and that he was a worker of the ruling party and a member of its parliamentary party.
In the meanwhile, two other opposition members also rose to their seats and expressed anger over the alleged interference by the government in their constituencies.
Announcing that they would not let the proceedings continue, all the 13 opposition legislators gathered in front of the speaker’s chair and started chanting slogans, which virtually marred the proceedings.
Some ministers and ruling party MLAs tried to defuse the situation, but it did not work and the house presented the scene of a fish market.
The prime minister, who was sitting in the house, sent one of his deputies to the opposition asking them to go back to their seats so that he (PM) could make a statement to satisfy them. But the opposition insisted that the session be adjourned and the PM should talk to them in his chamber.
The defiant opposition MLAs finally got the session adjourned, after which their meeting was held with the PM at his chamber.
The opposition later claimed that the PM had promised to remove their grievances.
|
|
|
|
