KARACHI, June 20: The Sindh Assembly failed to continue general discussion on the budget for the financial year 2007-08 on Wednesday, as the house was abruptly adjourned following “misconduct” by a female opposition legislator.

Farhad Zaman Jatoi, who was presiding over the session as one of the members of the panel of chairmen, adjourned the sitting just after the house reassembled at 2pm till Thursday morning saying that the house was not in order despite his rulings.

At around 12.30pm, the chair had warned PPP legislator Sassui Palejo over interrupting Law Minister Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhry during his speech on the issue of fresh electoral rolls and asked her to take her seat. The issue of fresh electoral rolls was raised by Makhdoom Jameel-uz-Zaman, who pointed out that over 4.5 million voters were missing from the list and asked for extending the time for updating the lists. The law minister said only 21 days were allowed for updating the lists under the rules and in the present case the lists would remain on display till July 3. Besides, he said, the voters’ enrolment would be possible until the announcement of the election schedule under Rule 18.

Ms Palejo began to speak while the law minister advanced his arguments. For her “misconduct”, the chair asked her to leave the house for the rest of the day under Rule 197. Chaos ensued when she refused to honour the chair’s ruling and the sitting was adjourned till 2pm.

As soon as the house reassembled for the afternoon sitting, the Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, raising a point of order, tried to offer his viewpoint on the legislator’s “misconduct”.

However, the chair gave the floor to MQM lawmaker Farheena Ambreen to speak on the budget. Before she could start the budget speech, Ms Palejo entered the house. The chair asked her to maintain the decorum of the house by following his ruling of her suspension for the day. When Ms Palejo failed to act on the ruling, the chair observed that since the house was not in order the session stood adjourned till Thursday 9.30am.

Earlier, Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who called the house in order at 10.40am, had tactfully handled the arguments and counter-arguments advanced by members of the treasury and opposition benches.

However, the members started hurling accusations against each other when Local Government Minister Mohammad Hussain, praising the security agencies for the arrest of Nishtar Park blast suspects, said the suspects belonged to Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and everyone knew about its (LJ’s) links with a religious party.

He said religious leader Munawwar Hasan addressing a training session on June 11 had justified suicide attacks. He said on the one hand the religious parties justified suicide attacks and on the other they blamed others for terrorism. Soon the investigations of the May 12 incidents would expose those involved in the tragedy, the minister said.

On this statement, MMA legislator Nasrullah Shaji rose to his feet and said that the government itself was involved in the Nishtar Park tragedy that was why the investigation by the tribunal, which the government had constituted, had been blocked by the government and the judge conducting the inquiry was transferred before the completion of the investigation.

Referring to the Sunni Tehreek’s stance, which was reported in the press on Tuesday, Mr Shaji said that the ST leadership had clearly stated that the real culprits behind the Nishtar Park tragedy were sitting in the government.

The statement was greeted with noisier accusations by the MQM legislators, including Shakir Ali, who rose from their seats. Other members from the opposition benches also joined in the exchange of accusations, however, nothing was clearly audible from the press gallery.

To maintain the decorum of the house, the speaker intervened and expunged all remarks passed by any member without his permission.

After the removal of all such remarks and accusations, the question-hour started smoothly from 11.05am to 12.05pm with Farhad Jatoi in the chair.