KARACHI, April 7: The uproar and slogan-raising by opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly on Friday did not let Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim to make a policy statement with regard to the issue of demolition of old villages in Karachi and compelled Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah to adjourn the session to Monday.
The house witnessed disorder soon after the question hour was over and the speaker announced that the chief minister wanted to make a policy statement under Rule-215 of the Rules of Procedure. But before the chief minister could take the floor, leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmad Khuhro stood up and sought permission to raise a point of order.
He reminded the speaker that he had he would allow him (Mr Khuhro) to speak on his point of order after the question hour. Ignoring Mr Khuhro’s contention, the speaker stood by his announcement allowing the chief minister to make the statement. This provoked a noisy uproar and many opposition members joined in Mr Khuhro’s protest and refused to listen to the speaker’s call to maintain order. Mr Shah was heard as saying that being the speaker, he was competent to rule about who should speak and who should not. He, however, assured Mr Khuhro that he would be allowed to speak after the chief minister made his statement.
In the meantime, the chief minister made an attempt to start speaking, shrugging off the opposition’s noisy protest. However, neither the chief minister no any other individual was clearly audible as almost all the opposition members were on their feet.
Two ministers Irfanullah Marwat and Nadir Akmal Leghari, in their bid to prevail upon the opposition members, also stood up and tried to counter the verbal onslaught but the speaker restrained them to avoid the situation getting worse. The minister took their seats, but the opposition continued to make noise demanding that the speaker should drop his ruling and allow Mr Khuhro to speak first.
The chief minister, who looked disappointed, sat down and was heard saying that the opposition was not serious in listening to the government’s point of view and resolving issues.
As the speaker saw no chance of the opposition’s uproar settling down and no sign of order to be restored, he called it a day at around noon. The house would now meeting on Monday morning.
Earlier, the chief minister who had entered the house during the question hour at 11.35am, answered a supplementary question about the cane crushing season. He said that the Sindh government had acted timely to ensure start of the crushing season promptly, thus facilitating the process to the convenience of both the growers and sugar mill-owners. He pointed out that crushing season in Sindh had not begun on time for many years.
Referring to the pressure tactics resorted to by mill-owners’ association in this regard, he said it was his government that resisted such methods and compelled them to start their mills according to the schedule. In this context, he made mention of the association’s demand that cane price should be fixed at Rs45 per maund as prevailed in the Punjab province. On the other hand, he added, the growers had been insisting on a price higher than Rs48 per maund, as prescribed by the Sindh government. He said that the growers appeared not prepared to harvest the cane until the issue of cane price was resolved. The dispute led to the closure of many sugar mills even though the government had managed to get them started. The reason, he said, was disruption in supplies from the growers.
He said that it was because of the warning given to the mill-owners that resulted in cane price rising as high as Rs130 per maund. The opposition benches pointed out that the hike benefited brokers and not growers as the latter got the rate of Rs60 per maund and the former claimed the rest.
The chief minister said that the Sindh government had curbed involvement of brokers so that growers could deal directly with mill-owners. But in the house, most of the questions were being put by brokers and not growers, he remarked.
Rejecting PPP member Rafique Engineer’s claim that the government was responsible for the hike in sugar prices, the chief minister said that the government was not under mill-owners’ pressure.
In reply to another question, Dr Arbab pointed out that it was for the first time that an FIR had been registered against mill-owners for opening firing at the growers, who wanted to hold talks on their dues outstanding against the owners.
KARACHI, April 7: The uproar and slogan-raising by opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly on Friday did not let Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim to make a policy statement with regard to the issue of demolition of old villages in Karachi and compelled Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah to adjourn the session to Monday.
