29 December 2004	Wednesday	16 Ziqa'ad 1425

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KARACHI, Dec 28: It was the shortest sitting of the Sindh Assembly this year on Tuesday, a private members' day, as Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah called it a day within 20 minutes after commencement of the deliberations.

He took the action after Murad Ali Shah, a PPP member, refused to comply with his order to "maintain decorum or leave the house''. The session was to begin at 10am but it could not take a start due to the absence of treasury members who turned up only at 11.45am. Five minutes later, the speaker took his seat.

After offering fateha for the victims of tsunami disaster, Minister for Mines and Mineral Resources Irfanullah Khan Marwat sought the chair's permission to move a motion under Rule 178, and said that all rules and provisions of rule 179 be dispensed with under Rule-211.

Before the minister could move his motion, Syed Murad Ali Shah rose from his seat and argued that Mr Marwat could not be allowed to move his motion as the day had already been declared 'private members' day'.

The chair tried to restrain the PPP member and ruled that being a member of the house, the minister could move a motion. The speaker then gave floor to Mr Marwat and allowed him to go ahead.

The speaker's decision provoked a verbal clash between the chair and the opposition member. However, on the speaker's insistence, Murad Ali Shah sat down and Mr Marwat then read out his motion.

Waving a copy of a newspaper, the minister said that a couple of days back he had moved a censure motion against leader of the opposition Mr Nisar Khuhro for questioning the conduct of the speaker.

"I had withdrawn the motion on the speaker's indulgence, but today again, Mr Khuhro has been quoted in this newspaper as saying that the speaker acts according to ministers' opinion rather than his own views,'' the minister said.

Before the chair could put the motion before the house, Murad Ali Shah stood up again and asked the speaker to be impartial. The chair repeatedly asked him to sit down but he refused to take his seat. At one point, another PPP member, Rafique Engineer, also stood up and started speaking in favour of Murad Ali Shah.

When Murad Ali Shah did not respond to any call from the chair, the latter issued several warnings and finally asked him to take his seat or withdraw from the house. The member also refused to obey the final warning following which the speaker ordered that all remarks by Murad Ali Shah be expunged. The speaker then adjourned the session for the day and left the house.

PROTEST: The joint opposition in the provincial assembly, in protest against the speaker's attitude, staged its own 'session' on the lawns of the assembly building. The sitting was chaired by Dr Sikandar Mandro, one of the members of the panel of chairmen as was nominated by the speaker for the original session.

The opposition took up the order of the day and adopted a resolution against the construction of Kalabagh Dam, notices of which had been given by Ms Sharfunnisa Leghari, Dr Sikandar Ali Mandro, Arshad Shah, Nawab Ali Wassan and Munwwar Ali Abbasi.

It also adopted Nisar Khuhro's motion urging the Sindh government to adopt a transparent and judicious recruitment policy. Another motion, moved by Syed Murad Ali Shah for an immediate halt to the construction of the Greater Thal Canal, was adopted by the opposition. The motion had called for the implementation of the two resolutions unanimously adopted by the house on the subject earlier.

Ms Shazia Marri sought the chair's permission to move a motion against the 'biased' attitude of the speaker. The motion was later moved jointly by several members. Condemning the speaker's partiality, the motion said that if the speaker did not change his attitude, the (opposition) members would move a no-confidence motion against him. The chair reserved its ruling on the motion till tomorrow (Wednesday).

Earlier, Mr Khuhro, speaking on a point of order, drew the chair's attention to a number of substantial motions which had been submitted with the assembly secretariat.

The motions, he maintained, pertained to pressing issues being faced by people. "We want to play our role in highlighting the issues but the speaker ordered that these motions be put to balloting, as if these were just resolutions. Only two of the motions were included in the order of the day,'' said Mr Khuhro.

He regretted that the government business on the agenda was often spread over several pages. Describing this as 'discrimination', Mr Khuhro asked the chair to reconsider the relevant order of the speaker. He urged that the practice of balloting of substantive motions be done away with.

Explaining his conduct during the session chaired by Speaker Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Syed Murad Ali Shah told the opposition-only sitting that he had refused to obey the speaker in protest against his partial attitude.

He said that he had refused to comply with his orders to leave the house and had asked the speaker to exercise his powers to send him out of the house through sergeant-at-arms.

Syed Murad Ali Shah told his colleagues that when the speaker ruled in favour of the minister on moving the latter's motion, he (Mr Shah) wanted to draw the speaker's attention to the Rule-31 which clearly stated: "Private business means and includes bills, resolutions and the motions given notice of by a member other than minister.'' But the speaker did not listen and ruled that under the Rule-211, the minister had asked him for suspension of the rules to allow him to move his motion under Rule-178, Mr Shah added.