KARACHI, March 6: Sindh Local Government Minister Muhammad Hussain on Tuesday gave assurance to the Sindh Assembly that there was no move by the City District Government of Karachi to settle the Kidney Hill case out of the court nor anyone was allowed to encroach on the land earmarked for the Gutter Baghicha.

He gave this assurance in response to the points of order raised by Nasrullah Shaji of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. In the point of order, he had alleged that efforts were being made through the city government to settle the Kidney Hill case out of court and hand over it to some builder. The case of Kidney Hill, which was spread over 62 acres with market value of over Rs60 billion, was pending in a court since 1990.

The minister said the land was earmarked for the park and as such it should not be utilised for any other purpose.

Nasrullah Shaji also drew the attention of speaker towards Gutter Baghicha which was spread over 450 acres and being encroached upon.

Dispelling the impression, the minister said the Gutter Baghicha was encroached upon 10 to 15 years back where some housing societies had got themselves registered. Besides, he said, some land was allotted to the KMC Employees society and they had got order from the court. However, he said the government had set up an inquiry committee to find out how the names of those people who never had been the employees of the KMC, were mentioned in the list of allottees.

After the questions’ hour, Iqbal Quaderi, who was presiding over the session as a member of the panel of chairmen, allowed the members to raise points of order. Yunus Barai of the MMA drew attention towards arrest of 150 to 200 pilgrims, including women and elderly people, on their return after performing Haj. He said if they had travelled on forged passports, the action should be initiated against the officials responsible.

Responding to the point of order Provincial Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat said they were Afghan nationals, who had illegally acquired the Haj passports and Pakistani ID cards with the connivance of some staff. “No foreigner has any right to get Pakistani passport and ID card as such they were being questioned to inquire about their accomplices,” he said.

Farheen Ambrin of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement drew attention of the house towards student-teacher ratio in government schools. She also asked about the use of funds in the government schools.

On a point of order, Rafique Engineer drew attention of the chair saying that he was not proceeding in accordance to the agenda.

The chair responded that it was the ruling of the speaker that the chair would take up point of orders after the questions hour. Before the chair could give floor to some other aspirant members on the treasury benches, Rafique Engineer rising from his seat started reading his privilege motion. This was objected by members from treasury benches including Irfanullah Marwat, Muhammad Hussain, Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari, Naila Inam and others.

Members sitting on the opposition benches started thumping the desk and Ayaz Soomro, Makhdoom Jameel and others stood up, but before the situation deteriorated sanity prevailed on the opposition as Nisar Khuhro asked his colleagues to take their seats so that the treasury benches should not have excuse to call the chair to prorogue the session again. Mr Marwat had earlier asked speaker to prorogue the session for disobeying his instructions during supplementary questions. Mr Khuhro asked the chair to bring the house in order.

Minister Muhammad Hussain pointed out the ruling of speaker that after questions hour members would be allowed to raise point of order.

Fareeda Baloch, who was recognised by the chair, pointed out water scarcity issue in Lyari and accused that a political party which had used water shortage for its politics was again creating hurdles when the present government was trying to solve the problem for good. Without naming any party, she accused it of threatening the engineer and other staff of water board which was working in Lyari.

Around 12.50, the chair announced prayers break for 40 minutes.