17 April 2004	Saturday	26 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 16: Press reports about the recovery of arms from the official car of a provincial minister created a stir in the Sindh Assembly on Friday with opposition members holding the minister responsible and the treasury side denying his involvement.

The uproar heightened to the extent that Mr Mohammad Hussain, who was presiding over the session at that time, had to leave the house after declaring its adjournment for 10 minutes.

The trouble started when Minister for Law Chaudhry Iftekhar tried to refute the allegation, made by Nasrullah Shaji of MMA during his speech earlier, that the car from which the weapons were recovered belonged to a provincial minister. The minister produced a report before the house suggesting that police and Rangers had booked and arrested two persons with arms in Liaquatabad and sent them to jail.

Since there was no mention of the minister's car in the report, Mr Shaji challenged the minister's statement in this regard. The MMA leader turned to the press gallery and said loudly that it was an insult to the journalists, as well as the newspapers, who had reported that the car in question belonged to a minister.

The opposition members started shouting that the minister was lying. In a rebuttal, the law minister produced a copy of an Urdu daily before the house and said that in this newspaper, the relevant report did not mention that the weapons had been recovered from a minister's car.

A similar situation developed when the chair refused to oblige the MPAs who were not present at the time when their names were called to make a speech. Mr Yunus Khan of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement sought permission from the chair to speak, but Minister for Labour Adil Siddiqui, who was sitting in the first row instead of his own seat in the back, angrily asked Mr Khan to sit down.

As Mr Khan refused to obey the minister's order, the latter in a threatening posture, tried to advance towards him. However, Minister Imtiaz Shaikh obstructed the minister and calmed him down.

Opposition benches protested against Mr Siddiqui's attitude and and started raising slogans: 'Terrorists minister be expelled from the house' and Gunda-gardi naheen chalegi. As the situation went out of the chair's control, the session was adjourned for 10 minutes and left the house.