KARACHI, Dec 5: The Sindh Assembly session was prorogued amid a rumpus and verbal bouts between treasury and opposition benches over the issue of Kalabagh dam on Monday without any business being transacted. Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana was presiding over the session which commenced late by two hours.

The trouble started soon after recitation from Holy Quran and Naat when senior opposition member Syed Qaim Ali Shah stood up to invoke a point of order, perhaps to plead for his adjournment motion, pertaining to the Kalabagh Dam project, to be taken up out of turn.

He was joined by some other opposition members who pressed the chair to grant him permission. The opposition members were displaying placards inscribed with slogans against the project.

However, the treasury benches were not in a mood to give in. They seemed agitated and perturbed to see the placards. Although a majority of them is not in favour of the project, but they appeared not prepared to stand up and be counted.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s deputy parliamentary leader Mohammed Hussain, Law Minister Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad and Minister for Mines Irfanullah Marwat stood up but only to insist that points of order be entertained after the question hour.

The chair also held the same view and announced commencement of the question hour, although neither side appeared in a mood to proceed with the business. The house started echoing with a noisy verbal bout between the treasury and opposition benches.

Nevertheless, Mohammad Hussain did try to chip in a supplementary to a question when the chair called the number.

In the meantime, opposition MPAs kept on displaying the placards and chanting slogans against the Kalabagh Dam project and its supporters. In their zest, they even resorted to using unparliamentarily language. Both the sides traded allegations of deliberately creating the rumpus.

Unable to control the house, Rahila Tiwana prorogued the session.

Hardly any substantial business had been undertaken during the session. Even today, order of the day was very elaborate. Owing to the rumpus, many government bills could not come up for consideration. They included the Local Government Amendment Bill 2005, Bill to amend the Sindh Cotton Control Ordinance 1966, The Societies Registration (Sindh Amendment) Bill 2005, Sindh Health Institutions (Establishment and Management) Bill 2005, etc.

A privilege motion of Shazia Marri and an adjournment motion of Nisar Khuhro were also guillotined. A large number of other items on the agenda was bulldozed due to the noisy exchanges.

After the house was prorogued, opposition MPAs, including those belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, staged a sit-in on the stairs of the assembly building, vowing not to let the government have its way on the controversial dam.