KARACHI: Requisition session prorogued after four-hour deliberation
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, April 4: The Sindh Assembly met here on Wednesday in a requisitioned session only to be prorogued, once again, after less than four hours of deliberations during which the chair laid one ordinance and introduced four bills before the house after reserving the ruling on the admissibility of an adjournment motion, moved by Leader of the Opposition Nisar Ahmad Khuhro.
The motion pertained to an armed attack on the vehicle carrying PPP MNA Dr Azra Pechuho on the day of polling for the by-election of PS-71, Jamshoro. The incident is one of the two items the joint opposition wants to discuss on the floor of the house. However, despite having requisitioned the session thrice, the items could not be taken up for discussion.
Opposition members, Murad Ali Shah, Rafique Engineer and Syed Qaim Ali Shah, besides Mr Khuhro, argued to convince the house on the admissibility of the motion whereas Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Farhad Jatoi and Muhammad Hussain opposed the motion.
Iqbal Qadri, who was presiding over the proceedings as a member of the Penal of Chairmen, reserved the ruling on the admissibility of motion.
The other item on the opposition’s requisition application is a privilege motion, submitted by Shazia Marri of PPP against the reported remarks by Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim against women in politics. The motion was not taken up in the Wednesday session as she was not present in the house when her name was called. Under Rule 180 (2), the motion was deemed as withdrawn.
The ordinance laid before the house was the Consumers Protection Ordinance-2007. The government bills introduced in the house included the Sindh Public Procurement Bill-2006, the Sindh Finance (Amendment) Bill-2006, and the Sindh Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) Bill-2006.
Earlier, the opposition completed the quorum at 10.25am and the house was called to order 20 minutes later, when Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah took his seat to see that no treasury member had turned up yet.
When the treasury members turned up, Leader of the Opposition sought the chair’s permission to move his resolution under Rule 211on recognising the services of PPP founder and a former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The resolution stated that Mr Bhutto gave the country its first unanimously approved Constitution and made Pakistan the first nuclear-armed state in the Islamic world. Beside there were countless accomplishments to his credit. Many opposition members supported the resolution and tried to speak in its favour but Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry said the motion should not be taken up under Rule 211, rather it could be put off till the private members’ day. He also maintained that the Z. A. Bhutto was convicted by judiciary and the house must respect the judiciary and its verdict.
He also claimed that many people who had been opposing Bhutto while he was alive but they were now in the ranks of PPP.
Nisar Khuhro retorted that one of the judges on that bench, Justice Nasim Hasan Shah, had termed the case ‘a big question mark’ while the entire world today paid tributes to Bhutto. He insisted that the resolution must be taken up for discussion. Several treasury members joined in the law minister while opposition members were supporting Mr Khuhro.
Members from both the sides started speaking at a time creating rumpus. PPP members started raising slogans of Jeay Bhutto, prompting the Speaker to issue warning of proroguing the session. His warning worked as soon afterwards, the agitating members started taking their seats. The Speaker put the motion to vote but it was defeated with 54 in favour and 62 against. Syed Murad Ali Shah, Usman Malkani and Farida Baloch were among about six treasury members who did not oppose the motion.
The chair then announced commencement of the question hour at 11.25am.
After question hour was over, no member except Hameeduallah Khan of MMA raised any point of order. Mr Hameedullah’s point pertained to police’s failure to deliver despite a spending of Rs13 billon on the maintenance of law and order. He asked the government to take notice of increasing kidnapping for ransom incidents, besides other crimes.
When the session resumed after Zuhr/lunch break several opposition and treasury members argued for and against the admissibility of Mr Khuhro’s adjournment motion.
As the chair reserved the ruling, Farhad Jatoi said the chair should give the ruling as the discussion had exceeded its limit of half an hour, fixed under the relevant rule, by another 30 minutes and the members were just repeating the arguments.
However, the chair read out the order to prorogue the session. Some of the opposition members criticised the prorogation and raised slogan of ‘shame, shame…’
