December 3, 2005	Saturday	Shawwal 30, 1426

KARACHI, Dec 2: No business could be taken up in the Sindh Assembly on Friday due to a rumpus set off by the opposition’s insistence that its resolution against construction of Kalabagh Dam be taken up out of turn, and the treasury benches’ refusal to favour the move.

It was a day of shouting and sit-in both inside and outside the house.

Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana, who was presiding over the brief noisy sitting, adjourned the session to Monday when she failed to restore order in the house.

Both sides traded accusations for 18 minutes soon after start of the day’s proceedings, already two hours late.

The trouble started when Ehsanullah Hazarvi of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal rose from his seat to say something on a point of order. He was muted by a noisy protest by many treasury members who opposed granting of permission to any member to raise a point of order before completion of question hour.

Senior PPP leader and former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman also stood up to raise their points of order, requesting the chair to suspend the question hour and let them move a resolution against Kalabagh dam out of turn.

They contended that the Kalabagh Dam was an issue of life and death for all people of Sindh. As such, the issue should be discussed in the house once again. They also recalled that the dam project had already been rejected by the house with a consensus.

The opposition MPAs stressed that the Sindh government should strive to convince the federal government to scrap the dam project which was not acceptable to the people of Sindh.

In response to the opposition’s demand, Minister for Mines Irfanullah Marwat spearheaded a noisy onslaught from the treasury benches to pre-empt any discussion on the issue. He kept stressing on the speaker’s ruling regarding points of order, and the chair repeatedly asked members to take up the question hour. As many members from both the sides were on their feet at a time, the house turned into a fish market.

Some of the opposition members waved a copy of their resolution against Kalabagh Dam and insisted that they be allowed to move the resolution.

Despite all efforts, Ms Tiwana would not succeed in restoring order and had to adjourn the proceedings till Monday morning. The opposition started raising slogans against the Kalabagh dam and Greater Thar Canal projects

Later, the opposition members staged a sit-in on the stairs of the assembly and chanting slogans against the government and the ‘anti-Sindh’ projects.

After adjournment of the session, which was also attended by Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Law Minister Chaudhry Iftikhar told journalists that the opposition benches had deliberately created a situation because, he alleged, they were not interested in discussing the problems being faced by people.

Addressing a news conference in his assembly chamber along with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Aslam Pervez, the law minister justified adjournment of the proceedings under Rule 197 (F). He maintained that on Wednesday, Syed Qaim Ali Shah had stressed on conducting business of the house in accordance with the relevant rules and that question hour was important because it provided an opportunity to make the departments accountable to the assembly.

The minister said that if the opposition had submitted a private business, then it could come up for discussion on Tuesday, being the private members’ day. He said that as per rules 33 and 34, private business could be taken up on Tuesday or any other day with the permission of the leader of the house or the law minister. But the opposition had not sought permission for the purpose, he pointed out, alleging that the opposition was not interested in letting the proceeding continue.

The minister referred to the government’s initiative for the implementation of the 1991 water accord which was in pending after the 1994 ministerial meeting, and maintained that the present government considered the accord as an effective document for water distribution among provinces.

Chaudhry Iftikhar said that at a meeting with the federal government, the Sindh government had expressed its reservations about the existing arrangements for distribution of water. He repeated the government’s argument that the province of Punjab would favour implementation of the 1991 accord while water was available in abundance but in the period of shortage, it would switch the support to the 1994 agreement.

The minister maintained that the government was already seized with the matter.

Senior PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah also accused the government of creating a rumpus in the house on Friday to sabotage all efforts to take up the ‘matters of life and death for Sindh people’ in the house.

He told a news conference after the session that the rumpus was a ploy of the government to run away from a discussion on the issues. But, he said, that opposition would not let the treasury benches run away.

Mr Shah said that when he wanted to raise the Kalabagh dam issue, Mines Minister Irfanullah Marwat stood up and created a rumpus. He said this was a mockery of the government’s deceptive stand on the dam project as it opposed and sabotaged any move to engage in a discussion on the floor of the house.

Referring to Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement on the construction of Kalabagh dam, the PPP leader described the remarks as being ‘tantamount to sprinkling salt on the wounds of the people of Sindh.” He alleged that the treasury benches had made up their mind not to allow any discussion on crucial issues.

He said that under Article-155 of the constitution, such contentious issues could be raised in the Council of Common Interests. Regrettably, he added, the council had not yet been constituted.

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in the house Nisar Khuhro said in a statement that three provincial assemblies, through their unanimously passed resolutions, had opposed the projects that appeared against the interests of Sindh and Pakistan, and had expressing their distrust in the government’s policy of constructing big dams.

He said that people now wanted to see the rulers ousted as they, according to him, “are enemies of the country”. He reiterated his party’s demand that Benazir Bhutto be allowed to return home.

Mr Khuhro said that PPP would never compromise on Kalabagh dam or other such issues. He asked the government to stop wasting time on thinking of constructing the dam.

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