KARACHI, Sept 21: On a private members day on Tuesday, the opposition in the Sindh Assembly attempted to ruffle the Arbab Rahim government on water shortage issue and the alleged rigging in the NA-229 by-elections held recently.

In the morning session, senior parliamentarian and former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had moved an adjournment motion asking for discussion on law and order situation created in Thar, and the alleged mass rigging resorted to in the recent bye-elections for the NA-229, in which Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz scored a landslide victory.

Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah said the motion would be put to the House on Wednesday. However, the House did take up the privilege motion by the opposition's Nawab Wassan, who had complained that he was illegally detained for 18 hours by Taluka police, Mirpurkhas, on the night of Aug 16.

Law Minister Ch Iftekhar Ahmed opposed the motion on the premise that on the night of Aug 16-17, two vehicles, a Honda Civic and a Toyota double cabin, moving towards Tharparkar from Mirpurkhas, were stopped at Naka Bandi.

The law minister said that there were three persons in the double cabin vehicle. One of them, whom he identified as Nazir Wassan, was carrying an automatic rifle, for which he had no licence. Similarly, their were no documents of the vehicle, he informed the House.

In view of that, a case was registered under 13-D, Arms Act, while the vehicle was impounded as it was considered to be stolen, he added. The law minister informed the House that a report under 13-D was submitted before a judicial magistrate, while the vehicle in question was placed under court's custody.

His contention was that Nawab Wassan had only narrated the incident, but had made no prayer for relief nor quoted any provision of the relevant act. He pointed out that the member was only detained for completion of legal formalities with regard to the weapon 'recovered' and the documents of the vehicle.

As the time for privilege motion was exhausted, the speaker terminated further arguments on the issue until Wednesday (today). On a point of order of Jam Saifullah Dharejo, the speaker directed that the standing committees on housing should meet regularly to resolve the matters presented to them.