24 December 2004	Friday	11 Ziqa'ad 1425

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KARACHI, Dec 23: Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Thursday accused the government of violating constitution by not convening the requisitioned session of the assembly and alleged that the chief minister was dividing people.

He was addressing a press conference in the Sindh assembly chambers along with the deputy opposition leader, Syed Murad Ali Shah, and other MPAs. The Sindh assembly session has been summoned by the governor on Friday.

Mr Khuhro recalled that the PPP had filed requisition for the assembly session on Dec 14 under Articles 54(3) and 127 of the constitution. The requisition was signed by 49 members.

He read out the articles which said: "On a requisition signed by not less than one-fourth of the total membership of the provincial assembly, the speaker shall summon the provincial assembly to meet, at such time and place as he thinks fit, within fourteen days of the receipt of the requisition; and when the speaker summons the assembly, only he may prorogue it."

Mr Khuhro pointed out that under these Articles, it was the right of the members to summon the session and the speaker was just the means through which they could use this right.

The speaker, he argued, was obligated to call the session within 14 days. Instead, ignoring the requisition, the government summoned the session through the governor.

"This is not for the first time that the requisition by private members has been sabotaged by the speaker, either due to his inefficiency or deceit,'' he deplored, and added that on three occasions in the past, the speaker had meted out similar treatment to the opposition's requisitions.

The speaker, he recalled, had even passed a ruling that "the requisition by the private members is infructuous after the government had already summoned the session through the governor.''

The opposition leader pointed out that it was in clear contradiction to an earlier ruling given by the senate chairman in 1992 in a similar situation and which had ruled that the private members' requisition was pending if the government called the session earlier and the Chairman was obligated to summon the session on this requisition as soon as the government session was prorogued.

He flayed the speaker's 'highly deplorable attitude' and accused him of trying his best to frustrate the opposition's efforts by obstructing important legislation introduced in the assembly.

Mr Khuhro claimed that the government agenda contained certain old bills whereas the PPP had requisitioned the session to deliberate upon the government's inability to finalize the NFC Award as per the joint and unanimous resolution passed by the assembly on Jan 30, 2003.

The party also wanted a debate on the government's failure in getting the work on Greater Thal Canal stopped, maintaining law and order, and ensuring transparency in the recruitment of 42,000 government servants, besides the creation of new districts in the province.

He criticized the government for failing to recover the judges kidnapped in Shikarpur and checking the rising graph of killings and for bypassing the public service commission in recruitment process.