KARACHI: Opposition divided over move to hail bill: City Council session
By Latif Baloch
KARACHI, Nov 16: In a calculated move, the treasury created a dent in the opposition ranks in the City Council session on Thursday when one of its women councillors, in total disregard of the house rules, presented a resolution in support of Women Rights Protection Bill while the house members were expressing their views on relevant subjects of the agenda.
Surprisingly, while the house was taking up its normal agenda, Ms Nasreen Jalil who was convening the session, tabled a resolution for paying tributes to the National Assembly for the passage of the bill; and bypassing the house current business, allowed the treasury member, Sarwat Arif, advocate, to read out her resolution in the house.
The house passed the amended resolution unanimously on the insistence of some Awam Dost councillor who had earlier joined a walkout staged by the combined opposition over non-inclusion of the name of Ms Benazir Bhutto in the resolution, along with Altaf Husain.
The amended resolution also paid tributes to MQM leader and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for their struggle for the rights of women.
A woman councillor, representing the PML-Q, also protested over non-inclusion of the name of Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain.
Earlier, Opposition members, led by Rafiq Ahmed of the Al-Khidmat Group, joined by the Awam Dost and other groups, stood up and pointed out to the chair that an irrelevant issue was being raised in total disregard of business rules of the house.
They regretted that even the house had not been taken into confidence on this important issue and the resolution was being presented by a house member and it was not tabled by the chair.
Kishwar Zaman, a woman member from the Opposition, reminded the chair about her ruling on Baujur when she had warned the house members not to raise national issues in the house.
She wanted to know whether the policy had been changed, and if in future the house can debate any national issue, including the bills passed in the National Assembly.
The chair said that she allowed the treasury member to table the resolution as she thought it was a non-controversial issue and every member of the house would support it.
Upon this, the Opposition members said had they been consulted, the situation would have been different. After this, they staged a token walkout in protest with the remarks of one of the Opposition members, Ibrahim Mughal, that he hated this bill. The walkout was made by all opposition groups.
Later, a group of Awam Dost councillors, led by Sheikh Mehbub-ur-Rehman, entered the house and informed the chairman that they would support the resolution on the condition that the name of PPP chairperson is included in the resolution, with Altaf Husain.
Earlier, when the house resumed session, the convenor tabled a resolution in the house enhancing the licence and registration fees of slaughterhouses, from Rs150 to Rs 500. Another resolution pertaining to raising the parking and entry fees of vehicles carrying husk for Landhi Cattle Market was tabled.
The Opposition members criticized both these resolutions and staged token walkouts. They argued these resolutions would overburden people.
In the absence of the Opposition, another resolution fixing Rs200 as licence and registration fee for workers in slaughterhouses and one relating to a contract of providing candies in the Karachi Zoo had been adopted unanimously.
Thursday’s session witnessed a division in the Opposition camp and at the same time a visible split was also noted in the ranks of the Awam Dost group.
A dissent group of Awam Dost, led by Dilawar Shah from Keamari Town, told newsmen that he would never support the Bill.
However, the Opposition Leader tried to dispel the impression, saying all opposition groups were united on city related issues.The session was also addressed by treasury members Asif Siddiqui, Masood Mehmood, Arif Bhatti, Imran Khan and Opposition members Imran Saeed and others.
