KARACHI: Police to face action for not registering FIR, PA told
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Nov 21: The Sindh Assembly session on Monday was wrapped up abruptly by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah soon after resumption of business when Sassui Palejo of PPP did not listen to the chair and insisted on discussing law and order situation.
Earlier, responding to point of orders raised by different members, Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui said that he would give a detailed statement tomorrow (Tuesday) on the floor of the house on their issues.
He assured the house that if any police official was found refusing to register an FIR, action would be taken against him as all SHOs were under instruction to register FIRs. If an FIR proved baseless, action could be taken against the person who had lodged the same, he added. Besides, he said, it had already been made clear to SHOs that the number of FIRs lodged with a police station did not reflect their service record.
The session, which started 90 minutes behind the schedule, remained by and large normal except for the last 10-minute heat generated by a few points of order pertaining to law and order. Mohammad Hussain from the panel of chairmen was in the chair while the house took up question hour. He conducted the business so tactfully that the house decorum was maintained even though five out of 10 questions asked by members were not answered by the health department.
After the question’s hour, leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmad Khuhro raised the issue of the October 29 transfer of 129 officials from Hyderabad district to rural areas. He pointed out that they included 74 Sindhi-speaking police personnel, and asked for the justification of such a move.
He also raised the issue of the alleged kidnapping of Mohammad Hussain Mallah, a candidate for nazim of UC Dhoro Naro. The victim, he claimed, had been let off only after the expiry of deadline for scrutiny of papers during which his nomination was rejected. “It is another matter that he got his candidature restored through the court and lost the election later, the matter of concern is that when he went to lodge an FIR against his kidnappers, the police refused to register the same, and even after the court issued the orders, the SHO refused to lodge the FIR as he was among the respondents,” Mr Khuhro said, adding that refusal by the SHO to register the FIR was contempt of court.
Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui maintained that all police stations in Sindh had been directed to oblige anyone seeking to lodge an FIR leaving the matter up to the concerned investigation officer to see whether the same was correct or not.
When the house reassembled after Zuhr break, with speaker Muzaffar Hussain Shah in the chair, Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman of PPP tried to move a motion out of turn on the issue of the teaching of Sindhi subject in schools. The chair advised him to move the motion while education minister was present in the house.
Ghulam Qadir Chandio and Shazia Marri of PPP, through their points of order, drew the chair’s attention to the kidnapping of two persons from the Sirhari area of Sanghar, and said that police, instead of taking action against kidnappers, had been arresting PPP workers. Ms Marri said that although the home secretary had held out the assurance on Saturday that the matter would be resolved by Monday morning, the arrests were still continuing.
Akhtar Jadoon from the opposition benches recalled the Nov 8 attempt on his life and death of a policeman in the incident, and told the house that the assailants had not yet been arrested. He claimed that a drug pusher, currently in prison, had warned police against arresting his men who, the MPA said, were also involved in looting a petrol pump.
Ms Shama Mithani of PPP, rising on a point of order, pointed out that during the previous session, she had asked the authorities not to dislodge people in the holy month of Ramazan in the name of resettlement viz-a-viz the Lyari Expressway. However, the families living in Ziaul Haq Colony, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, were dislodged without being provided with some alternative residences and compensation, she regretted. She said she had received information that as the authorities had started demolishing their houses, a confrontation had taken place. She stressed the need for resolving their problem before going ahead with the process.
Ms Sassui Palejo raised the issue of the killing of Maulvi Qasim in Thatta. She became emotional while drawing the attention of the house to the deteriorating law and order situation in the interior.
The chair asked her to take her seat and gave the platform to Ms Nuzhat Pathan of PPP, but Ms Palejo did not listen to the chair. She kept speaking even when her mike was switched off. The chair first sought indulgence of the leader of the opposition in making her maintain decorum of the house, and then asked Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry to explain the relevant rules. Ms Palejo was advised to refer to the laid down procedure of taking up any issue for discussion through a motion.
However, when she refused to heed, the chair’s called it a day. The house will meet again at 10am on Tuesday.
QUESTION HOUR: When the house took up question hour, Health Minister Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, in response to a question put up by Ms Humera Alvani, told the house that that Dr Farhana Memon, a Grade-17 officer, worked as secretary in the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority although she was not a pathologist. The post was purely an administrative one and the relevant Act also appeared silent over the academic qualification of a secretary, he added.
He maintained that on the basis of her extra qualification — Masters in Public Health — she had been appointed on that post. However, he said, on the objection by the MPA, a notice was taken and Dr Farhana was transferred. Dr Zahid Hussain Ansari, a Grade-19 officer and senior pathologist/haematologist, was not appointed on the post.
