KARACHI, June 16: The noisy protest of the opposition over the Legal Framework Order, the Greater Thal Canal project and the government’s failure to reconstitute the National Finance Commission drowned out the speech of the finance minister during the budget session of the Sindh Assembly on Monday.
The opposition, who had come well prepared with black armbands and badges inscribed with slogans of “No, LFO No” and “Go Musharraf Go”, upstaged the performance of the opposition in the National Assembly and elsewhere. A few torn up budget documents came flying on the head of the finance minister who hurriedly read out his speech amid the uproar.
The opposition fired the opening salvo when the chief minister entered the House along with other ruling party members. They chanted slogans against him and the budget without the raise in the NFC award and insisted that the budget was being presented under the LFO which was not acceptable to them.
No sooner had the recitation of the Holy Quran ended, opposition members took control of the proceedings and made the speaker of the Sindh Assembly, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, allow them to offer Fateha for former speaker Raziq Khan and many others.
In an attempt to pacify the opposition, the speaker also allowed the leader of the opposition, Nisar Khuhro, to move a resolution urging the Sindh government to arrest the killers of the late Raziq Khan and constitute a judicial commission to look into the killing. The resolution was unanimously adopted by the assembly.
Trouble began when the speaker did not allow Mr Khuhro to speak on his resolution. Instead, the speaker announced that Assembly members would be allowed to comment on the resolution on Thursday. He added that no other matter could be taken up during the budget session.
Backed by the members of the opposition, Mr Khuhro remained unconvinced and insisted that he would make a statement on the resolution.
The opposition kicked up a rumpus when the speaker asked the provincial finance minister, Syed Sardar Ahmad, to present the budget. They screamed and shouted at the top of their voices, vowing not to let the finance minister speak when they were not being allowed to comment on the resolution. They tore up the budget documents and hurled them at the treasury benches. Others burned the budget documents. The opposition members installed themselves in the space between the speaker and the treasury benches. Others jumped on their seats raising slogans against the government.
The finance minister kept on reading the speech amid a lot of jostling and pushing. Sindh Assembly members belonging to the Muttahida Quami Movement and other parties formed a human shield around him. Radio and television microphones in front of the finance minister fell off the rostrum as the opposition members swarmed around him. PTV crew helplessly tried to keep microphones in front of the finance minister.
As the rumpus intensified, one could see Mohammad Hussain of the Muttahida Quami Movement and Dr Nasrullah Baloch of the Pakistan People’s Party lose their cool. Tempers flared as Mr Hussain, in an attempt to keep the opposition members away from the finance minister, pushed Mr Baloch. However, Umar Sadiq of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal intervened and brought the situation under control.
KARACHI, June 16: The noisy protest of the opposition over the Legal Framework Order, the Greater Thal Canal project and the government’s failure to reconstitute the National Finance Commission drowned out the speech of the finance minister during the budget session of the Sindh Assembly on Monday.
