KARACHI, May 3: The requisitioned session of the Sindh Assembly which had resumed on Wednesday after a four-day break was prorogued amid pandemonium and uproar.
It was only the second working day of the session requisitioned to deliberate upon two items — the April 11 blast at Nishtar Park and the demolition of old villages in Sindh.
While the previous sitting, on Friday lasted just 55 minutes, the Wednesday proceedings could continue for only 25 minutes.
On Friday, the house was able to start the proceedings at 11:05am, instead of its scheduled time, 9am. On Wednesday, the session was called to order at 11:40am, more than two hours behind the scheduled time. Dr Irfan Gul Magsi, a member of the panel of chairmen, was presiding over the session.
The trouble started at 11:55am when PPP’s Syed Qaim Ali Shah, a senior parliamentarian, interrupted the process of offering fateha for certain deceased with remarks that fateha should also be offered for democracy as its funeral had been taken out in Hyderabad on Tuesday. He was referring to the alleged rigging and manipulations in the by-elections for a National Assembly seat for which polling was held on Tuesday in Hyderabad.
Syed Shakir Ali of MQM drew the chair’s attention to his remarks, arguing that the opposition was making fun of religion. A similar act had been resorted to by MMA’s Hameedullah Khan in the earlier sitting, he recalled.
Mr Ali was supported by more than half-a-dozen treasury members, most of them women, who stood up to express their anguish over the remarks. Mr Ali demanded that the house should seek an apology from Mr Shah and requested the chair to expunge the remarks.
A pandemonium followed as many opposition members also stood up to defend Mr Shah. They included leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman, Rafique Engineer, Shama Mithani, Mehreen Bhutto, Humera Alwani, Nasrullah Shaji, Hameedullah Khan and Yunus Barai.
The chair tried to restore order by telling the treasury benches that Mr Shah’s remarks were expunged. However, Mr Shakir Ali and other treasury members continued to insist on an apology by Mr Shah.
The chair made repeated attempts to calm down the members but in vain.
Mr Ali was heard saying that they (treasury benches) would not return to normal business until Syed Qaim Ali Shah offered apology. He also asked the chair to allow him to speak for a minute.
An opposition member in a loud voice urged the chair to “throw out the member (Mr Shakir Ali) from the hall.
As a last resort, Dr Magsi warned of proroguing the session if the agitating members did not behave.
Dr Magsi then obliged Mr Shakir Ali by giving him one minute to speak as he had desired. However, the opposition objected to it, saying that the floor had already been given to the member who wanted to raise a supplementary question and, as such, no other member could be give the floor to speak on a point of order.
Amid complete chaos, the chair read out the order to prorogue the session at around noon.
Some of the opposition members, raising slogans of ‘shame… shame…’ reacted strongly to the prorogation of the session. They tore of the agenda of the session to show their sheer disappointment and anger.
