KARACHI: Rumpus mars PA session: Opposition quits house body
By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, March 14: The opposition in the Sindh assembly on Monday resigned from the House Business Committee in protest against the late-coming of the treasury members, saying that the practice was aimed at scuttling a debate on the agenda for the requisitioned session.
The deliberations held later were marred by a rumpus stirred up by the appalling conduct of the treasury members who were visibly shying away from discussing the problems being faced by people.
Ever since the requisitioned session commenced, on Feb 25, it was the first day that the first issue of the opposition’s agenda was briefly taken up at the fag end of the day’s proceedings.
The debate, on law and order, did begin but proved short-lived. The opportunity was wasted by the legislators who resorted to creating a rumpus so intense that the deliberations had to be adjourned for the day.
The Monday session was to commence at the most by 10.30am, but the understanding that had arrived at the time of the formation of House Business Committee (HBC) was not reflected in the conduct of the treasury members who stayed away from the house till 11.40am, ignoring the long spells of the bell.
When the session commenced, opposition leader Nisar Ahmad Khuhro announced withdrawal of all five opposition members from the HBC alleging that the treasury benches were not interested in orderly conduct of the house.
The opposition also complained that Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, as chairman of the committee, should have come to the house and ensured commencement of the proceedings even if the government side was not willing to meet the requirement of quorum. However, it said, the speaker declined to come to the house unless quorum was complete.
Acrimonious remarks were exchanged when proceedings resumed after Zuhar break but the speaker expunged all such remarks made by Law Minister Chaudhry Iftikhar, Mines Minister Irfanullah Marwat and opposition leader Nisar Khuhro.
Munawwar Abbasi of the opposition told the speaker that since he was chairman of the committee, it was his responsibility to ensure timely commencement of the deliberations. The speaker justified his inaction citing lack of quorum.
MMA’s Hafiz Naimur Rehman told the house that on the order of the KBCA chief, the plot for mosque was being amalgamated with the park in Clifton’s Block-2. He demanded removal of park’s boundary wall, saying that the issue could lead to a law and order problem.
Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi said that the city government was also a party to this matter but he would examine the matter and inform the house accordingly.
Shazia Marri of PPP tried to move a resolution on women’s right out of turn but her request was rejected by a majority vote.
During the vote count, following opposition by the law minister, the Minister for Women Affairs, Dr Saeeda Malik, showed the courage not to join the bandwagon of her government colleagues, though a reluctant Bano Saghir could not resist the pressure from women members of MQM and PML. Dr Malik stood up to be counted among those who supported the resolution.
The speaker said that resolution was an undisputed one and should have been moved in consultation with the law minister.
The law minister said this resolution would be moved by treasury benches on Tuesday. He explained that the treasury benches were not opposed to the resolution, but were not in favour of moving it out of turn.
He was reminded by the chair, as well as by the opposition’s Murad Ali Shah, that on private members’ day, no resolution could be taken up. However, it was amply indicated that unless the government was involved in any seemingly good resolution moved by the opposition, it would meet the same fate. While each side was accusing the other of playing to the gallery, their thirst for snatching credit was evident.
When Mohammed Rafiq of PPP raised the issue of academic calendar, the speaker pointed out that education minister was not present in the house.
Mr Rafiq insisted on being allowed to speak on the issue, but the chair warned of adjourning the proceedings if the member did not comply with his order.
Mr Khuhro told the chair that he wanted to withdraw his privilege motion on fisheries department if he was allowed to move another motion.
At this stage, there was exchange of remarks between the speaker and the opposition leader during which Mr Khuhro started speaking loudly and treasury members resorted to interrupting him.
After a long spell of a verbal exchange between the two benches, Syed Murad Ali Shah extended arguments on the privilege motion criticizing the departments of fisheries and revenue. The motion was opposed by law minister. The speaker reserved his ruling on the matter.
Later, the speaker ordered commencement of a debate on law and order and gave the floor to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Talib Imam who said that despite claims of an increase in street crime, mobile phone snatching, etc., the law and order today was better today than the situation in 1997.
He was of the view that had the law and order not been satisfactory, the foreign investment to the tune of $4.98 billion would not have been possible. He pointed out that $2.98 billion of the total investment had been made in Sindh which was a positive indicator. In this context, he also referred to the KSE index that crossed 10,000 points mark. He said that factories that had been turned into godowns by the past governments were again being revived and expatriates were also making huge investments in the country.
When Syed Murad Ali Shah was given the floor, he started speaking with remarks: “When there is no law, there cannot be order.” He severely criticized the government and described the row involving Chief Minister Arbab Rahim and the sacked revenue minister Imtiaz Shaikh as ‘a glaring example of corruption’.
At this point, treasury members objected to his remarks and asked him to restrict his speech to the issue of law and order.
The member maintained that both Dr Arbab and Mr Shaikh had traded serious allegations of corruption against each other and if a criminal was not arrested, then how could one regard the law and order as satisfactory.
He said the government had no legal or moral authority to rule over the province after being charged with such offences. This again provoked a collective protest by the treasury side which did not allow the PPP member to continue with his tirade.
As the situation got out of the control of Irfan Gul Magsi, who was chairing the session at that time, he adjourned the deliberations for the day. The house would meet again on Tuesday morning.
