November 11, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 15, 1424

KARACHI, Nov 10: Action would be taken under the Sugarcane Act against the sugar mill owners who did not oper-ate their plants from Nov 15.This was stated by Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed and Minister for Agriculture Arif Jatoi while responding to points of orders raised by some opposition members in the Sindh Assembly on Monday.The House was informed that when the sugarcane rate was brought down from Rs43 to Rs 41 per maund, representatives of the mill owners as well as sugarcane growers had been taken into confidence. The mill owners had demanded that the rate be scaled down further to Rs40 in order to bring it at par with that in Punjab. However, after consulting his Punjab counterpart, the Sindh chief minister fixed the price at Rs41 per maund.

Syed Sardar Ahmad said that mill owners had also been told to clear all the dues payable to the Abadgars by December 31 and the premium by January 31, 2004.

Mr Jatoi said that funds had been released to the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) for lifting of sugar from the mills which had been directed to resume operation on the specified date.

Syed Sardar Ahmad said that the sub-committee constituted by the House had put forward its recommendations in this regard and that the same would soon be presented to the assembly.

Leader of the opposition Nisar Khuhro claimed that by lowering the price by Rs2, Abadgars of Sindh were made suffer a loss of one billion rupees. Demanding that the important issue be debated in the House, he said he had also submitted a motion on the subject with the assembly secretariat.

Mr Mohammad Hussain, who was at that time presiding over the session, said that it would be taken up on its turn.

Earlier, Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah reserved his ruling for Tuesday on a point of order through which Mr Nisar Khuhro wanted to know whether or not the questions and their answers, placed before the House, would be deemed as having been replied, even when the matter had not been taken up.

Nisar Khuhro raised the point of order when he invited the attention of the Speaker that a local English daily published the questions and answers of Friday session while these were not taken up as the House had been adjourned after disturbance in the proceedings.

His contention was that since the question hour was not taken up, it could not become part of the proceedings. But the treasury benches maintained that since they were laid in the House, it became part of the day’s proceedings.

The opposition, however, was at loss to understand how this could be justified because accepting this would mean that other business of the day, which could not be taken up owing to rumpus, would also become part of the proceeding without the members expressing their views on the matter and exercising their democratic right.

The Speaker said that it was a tradition of the assembly that the questions asked and their replies were circulated among the members. As such, the questions are deemed as having been replied even if not taken up due to any reason, he added.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah of PPP argued that as the Speaker had not called for question hour, therefore no one asked the questions as listed and no answer was given. Accordingly, the matter concerning question hour placed before the House does not become part of the proceedings, he insisted.

When the Speaker asked Minister for Law for his opinion, he first supported Qaim Ali Shah’s contention and said that it could not become part of the proceedings unless taken up by the House. He also cited the same rules which the opposition member had referred to. However, after realizing his mistake and feeding from other colleagues, the minister cited another rule to maintain that the question hour had become part of the proceedings. Education Minister Irfanullah Marwat also supported him.

Nisar Khuhro then cited Rule 53(1) to contest the views of the law minister whose confusion had embarrassed the treasury benches. However, the Speaker closed the matter by saying that he would give his ruling on the matter on Tuesday.

The Speaker also solicited opposition’s assistance on how the government could be forced to express its views on the points of order so frequently raised by the members.

The PPP’s Marvi Mazhar, on a point of order, opposed privatization of two sugar mills on the grounds that it would exacerbate the problem of unemployment which was forcing people to commit suicide. She also accused EDO of Dadu of corrupt practices leading to the closure of many educational institutions. She claimed that the education minister did not respond to her complaints in this regard. Her claim was refuted by Irfanullah Marwat who informed the House that Ms Marvi had pointed out this matter during a break in the session. He also informed that teachers had called off their strike in that area.

As Ms Marvi remained restive, the Speaker impressed upon her to act according to rules and also listen to others. Ehsan Jatoi of PML came out with the claim that more development work had been carried out in Dadu and elsewhere by the present government.

Rafiq Advocate of PPP claimed that the grant of Rs500,000 pledged to the Karachi Bar by the law minister had been withheld due to the Bar’s campaign against the LFO.

Law Minister Chaudhary Iftekhar, however, clarified that the grant used to be given in every financial year. Denying that the same had been withheld, he said the grant had been given in the previous financial year and the matter would be processed during the current financial year accordingly.

The House will meet again at 10am on Tuesday.

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