19 November 2004	Friday	06 Shawwal 1425

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KARACHI, Nov 18: The Sindh Assembly session had to be adjourned for the day after about one hour of deliberations due to pandemonium, without taking up any of the 22 items on the agenda on Thursday.

Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had summoned the session at 5pm. However, it started more than half-an-hour late. In the absence of Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who is currently on a visit to India, the session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Ms Rahila Tiwana.

The uproar touched its peak when the chair disallowed MMA's parliamentary party leader Maulana Umar Sadiq to speak on his point of order on law and order.

Earlier, when the deliberations started in an orderly manner, the chair allowed the opposition leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro to speak on his point of order about how long the session would last. Mr Khuhro also wanted to know that why the governor had chosen to summon the session on his own while the opposition had already filed a requisition on Nov 6. Another opposition member Murad Ali Shah was also allowed to participate in the discussion.

Responding to the opposition's objections, Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry cited Article-109 under which, he said, the governor could summon a session anytime and anywhere at his will. Maintaining that the governor intended to summon the session before the opposition had filed a requisition, the minister claimed that a summary of the session to be summoned on Nov 18 had been moved on Nov 4, two days before the assembly secretariat had received the opposition's requisition.

Even if it would have been a requisition session, he argued, the sequence of the items on the agenda would have been the same. He asked the opposition that why it was curious about how long or short the session would be.

Mr Mohammad Hussain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement recalled that it had been the practice of the PPP government, in the days when the MQM was in the opposition, that the opposition's request for summoning a session had been ignored just to prevent it from discussing items of its choice. Contrary to that practice, the present government always accommodated business of the opposition in the agenda, he added.

The chair reserved its ruling on the point of order till Nov 23 and announced start of the question hour. However, Maulana Omar Sadiq rose from his seat and sought permission to speak on his point of order. Ms Tiwana maintained that since she had already announced commencement of the question hour, therefore he should not discuss his point of order.

The member insisted that he wanted to draw the attention of the house to an important matter that pertained to law and order, but the chair continued to ignore his arguments that prompted other opposition members to stand up. Quite a large number of members from the opposition and treasury benches started shouting at this point, creating pandemonium.

The uproar heightened to the extent that nobody was audible. Leader of the house Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim did not try to intervene at any stage during the whole session.

The speaker made many attempts to restore order in the house but in vain. Finally, at 6:50pm, she announced adjournment of the session till 9:00am on Friday.

Soon after the commencement of the session, the deliberations were put off for Maghrib prayers. When the deliberation resumed, Ms Rahila Tiwana took the chair of the speaker and announced the panel of chairmen, naming Mohammad Hussain, Fawad Jatoi, Bano Saghir and Fareeha Razzaq.