January 21, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 20, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 20: The non-serious attitude of the opposition in the House, which was requisitioned by them to discuss water reservoirs issue including Kalabagh Dam, has compelled the chair to abruptly prorogue the session.

This was stated by Provincial Law Minister Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhry while addressing a press conference in his chamber soon after the session was prorogued by Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana.

Recalling that the House was meeting in a requisitioned session on a single point agenda to discuss the water issue, Mr Chaudhry said on Thursday when the House reassembled after a recess of 19 days, priority was given in the order of the day to the general discussion on the adjournment motions of the opposition so that the house could deliberate on the sensitive issue. However, when Speaker Muzaffar Hussain Shah invited them, instead of initiating the discussion on their adjournment motion, Rafique Engineer from the PPP had taken cover of the rules of business and insisted on taking up the questions hour first.

The law minister said that the Speaker had fixed general discussion before taking up question hour as the opposition members had highlighted the importance of water issue and we were prepared to participate in the discussion. For this purpose, the list of speakers from the treasury side was also submitted.

Today when on the order of the day the question hour was the second item, the deputy opposition leader insisted that the chair should allow him to raise point of order.

Allowing him to raise the point of order meant that others should also be provided opportunity to speak including from treasury side, which could have consumed precious time. The opposition members insisted that they should be given opportunity to speak and should not listen to the members from treasury side.

He said the changing of priorities daily was an indication that the opposition was not serious to discuss their issue of the agenda as after president’s speech of Jan 18 there had left nothing to discus on the water issue. He maintained that President Musharraf giving due consideration to the aspirations and feelings of people of Sindh had decided the water reservoir issue by announcing the construction of Bhasha Dam.

“Even then if the opposition wants to discuss the issue, we are prepared to continue the session for the next three to four days but when today the opposition insisted on allowing Jamiluz Zaman to raise the point of order instead of initiating discussion, the treasury benches were surprised and the deputy speaker had to issue warning to restore discipline in the house before the session was prorogued,” Iftikhar Chaudhry said.

Referring to the remarks of Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman of the PPP that the treasury benches wanted to run away from the discussion, he said: “Why we should avoid discussion when our stand is clear on the water issue. Even last time when the opposition had requisitioned the session on Kalabgah Dam, the general discussion was held for 17 days. If the opposition wants to requisition the session, they are still welcomed,” he added.

Mines and Mineral Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat, who was present in the press conference, pointed out that as the session was requisitioned by the opposition, it was their duty to complete quorum. But when the House was called to order there were only 24 members while for a quorum 42 members were required. For the sake of resuming business, the treasury members came for participation.

He said if Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman wanted to raise any point he could have raised it during general discussion on the issue of water reservoir as no one was stopped to raise the issue.

Mr Marwat said: “Why should we run away from the water issue when the decision of president was in accordance to the wishes of people of Sindh.”

Talking to APP in her chamber after prorogation of PA session, Deputy Speaker Raheela Tiwana said that the session was prorogued due to non-serious attitude of opposition to discuss problems of the people.

She said that the session was called on the opposition’s requisition to discuss the construction of water reservoirs in the country but till 11:30am their quorum was incomplete.

She said that President Musharraf had resolved all issues related to the construction of water reservoirs with his announcement for construction of Bhasha and Munda dams first in the national interest.