May 4, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1427

KARACHI, May 3: The joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday accused the government of being indifferent to the problems of Sindh, and avoiding a discussion on the Nishtar Park tragedy and other problems on the floor of the house “to cover up its shortcomings.”

Addressing a news conference after the session was prorogued, leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who was accompanied by Makhdoom Jameeluz Zaman and Nasrullah Shaji, alleged that the Sindh coalition had made the people and elected institutions of Sindh hostage, and was implementing its agenda of scuttling the democratic dispensation and rendering elected institutions redundant.

They accused MPA Shakir Ali (MQM) of being instrumental in creating the pandemonium during the Wednesday deliberations and holding the assembly hostage.

Mr Khuhro argued that the conspiracy against the assembly was evident from the fact that when the session commenced, the speaker and deputy speaker did not chair the proceedings. Instead, a member of the panel of chairmen was asked to conduct the same.

He alleged that Dr Irfan Gul Magsi had prorogued the assembly on the instructions of minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat. Along with Mr Marwat, ministers Iftikhar Chaudhri and Nadir Akmal Leghari, and MPA Shakir Ali had done nothing but to get the session prorogued, he added.

Mr Khuhro pointed out that Dr Magsi had not prevented Mr Ali from making noise and provocative statements in the house “just to mend fences with the MQM”.

He maintained that there was no justification for proroguing the session while the agenda of the day and the agenda of the requisition were yet to be taken up.

The opposition leader claimed that the session had been prorogued “just to provide cover to a coalition component that was involved in rigging, in Tuesday’s by-election, that broke all records and destroyed the democratic norms.” The rigging had left no doubt about the regime’s plans to wash out the opposition through dubious means, he added.

He pointed out that Wednesday was the private members’ day, but the government had avoided to let the proceedings go ahead. The same tactics, he recalled, had been resorted to in the previous sessions as the government would always adjourn the sittings without any valid reason. Members have already been deprived of three private members’ days, he deplored.

MMA leader Nasrullah Shaji alleged that the MQM had been holding the whole province hostage and the armed activists of its student wing had been disturbing the academic atmosphere in the city’s educational institutions.