KARACHI: Govt assures PA of getting water accord implemented: Normalcy returns to house
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Nov 30: The Sindh government is committed to ensure implementation of the 1991 water accord as it considers it the only effective document for a fair distribution of water among provinces.
This assurance was given by Irrigation Minister Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari in response to a point order raised by Sassui Palejo of PPP when she drew the attention of the House towards a statement by the minister that “the 1991 accord was not being implemented”.
Although, the Wednesday proceedings followed two days of pandemonium in the house, both the treasury and opposition benches demonstrated seriousness and looked in sombre mood. The rumpus had been triggered off on Monday by the conduct of some opposition members which was not liked by the Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah and the situation had aggravated when he passed a ruling which asked a PPP member Syed Murad Ali Shah to quit the hall and stay away from the next day’s proceedings.
Both the benches on Wednesday avoided any confrontation with each other. Even when the Zuhr break, usually of 20 minutes, ran into almost two hours, neither side tried to make it an issue or a pretext to breach the decorum.
Mr Muhammad Hussain, a member of the Panel of Chairmen, was chairing the session when it started at around 11.45 and conducted the proceedings till the rising of the house at 3.25pm. He succeeded in preventing occurrence of any chaos during the deliberations.
Speaking on her point of order, Ms Palejo said the chief minister should take notice of the situation where Sindh stood deprived of its due share in water due to the non-implementation of the 1991 accord. He must take up the issue with the federal government, she added.
She also pointed out that Gen Pervez Musharraf had repeatedly been talking of getting the controversial Kalabagh Dam constructed. In this context, she demanded that the government should take the assembly into confidence with reference to the three resolutions adopted unanimously in this august house against the dam project.
The irrigation minister maintained that it was the present provincial government that had taken an initiative towards the implementation of the accord which had been pending since 1994 ministerial meeting. He said that the Sindh government still regarded the accord as an effective document for a fair distribution of water. He recalled that at recent meeting with the federal authorities, the Sindh government had expressed its reservations over the present arrangements for distribution of water.
Reassuring the house that the government would fulfil its responsibility of getting the accord implemented, he pointed out that all four chief ministers at a high-level meeting, which had been attended also by Senator Nisar A. Memon, had expressed the need for implementing of 1991 accord.
Dr Mehreen Bhutto of PPP referred to the Sindh-wide protest against the baton-charge and teargas shelling on a peaceful rally by the nurses in Khairpur. The rally was held in protest against the participants’ principal, she added.
Dr Bhutto also claimed that three of the protesting nurses had been kidnapped and recovered from the house of the driver of the local SHO.
The member strongly criticized police for resorting to violence against women. In this context, she recalled that only a few days back, this house passed a resolution condemning all forms of violence against women.
Nawab Wassan of PPP, raising a point of order, demanded setting up of a house committee to hold an inquiry into the affairs, and said that the respondent should be asked to appear before committee. Instead of acting against outlaws, the police used force against helpless women, he remarked.
Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry assured the house that he would ask for reports from both home and health departments with regard to the inquiry. The chair directed the minister to submit the report in the house on Friday.
Munawwar Ali Abbasi of PPP drew the chair’s attention towards the law minister’s statement that the matters pertaining to agriculturalists and prices of cotton, paddy, sugarcane, etc would be discussed in the house on Nov 28 but it was not done. He sought the chair’s permission for moving his resolution on the subject out of turn under the Rule 211.
Ms Bilqees Mukhtar of the MQM welcomed the ongoing crackdown by the home department against the so-called healers (Aamils), and demanded action against the emerging mafia using under-age girls in begging elsewhere in Karachi. Some of these poor and innocent young girls were being abused also, she deplored.
Syed Murad Ali Shah of PPP urged the chair to spare an extra day as ‘private members day’ in lieu of the one that had been turned into normal business day during the budget session. The chair declared coming Wednesday as the private member’s day in addition to Tuesday, already a private members day.
When Mines and Mineral Minister Irfanullah Marwat pointed out that the sitting had run into over one hour and it was 3.25pm, the chair asked the opposition benches to move a motion for the purpose as the treasury members were not in its favour. The opposition left a decision up to the chairman who adjourned the session till Friday.
Earlier, soon after the members reassembled, PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah, on a point of order, stressed the need for maintaining decorum of the house. He requested the chair that relaxation of rules should be applied only when it was deemed necessary and in public interest. The senior PPP leader stressed that before giving any ruling, the chair should provide an opportunity to the opposition to express its views.
He also suggested that the Kalabagh dam, being a matter of life and death of Sindh people, should be discussed in the house once again.
He said that the federal government must now that the people of Sindh would prefer laying down their life when it came to accepting the construction of the dam.
