KARACHI: Rival city council members trade barbs over resolution
By Latif Baloch
KARACHI, Nov 14: The proceedings of the City Council on Wednesday were marred by noisy protests and disorder as both the treasury and opposition benches traded accusations against each other over a resolution passed on Tuesday that sought to disqualify council members with political affiliations.
The session was presided over by Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil who had to repeatedly intervene, advising both the members of the treasury and the opposition to maintain the decorum of the house and to respect each others’ views.
As soon as the house resumed its session, opposition leader Saeed Ghani, on a point of order, told the chair that the resolution adopted by the council on Tuesday was “illegal”, arguing that the council was not “empowered to propose the disqualification of any member”. Questioning the validity of the resolution, Mr Ghani further argued that he wanted to know under which law the council had adopted such a contentious resolution.
He described it as person-specific and remarked that the relevant rules and sections of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) which were mentioned in the text of the resolution were misquoted as according to him, these rules do not bar a member from holding political office.
The opposition leader admitted to his affiliation with a party and to being an office-bearer of that party, saying that he was not ashamed of accepting this. But he regretted to say why the treasury members were hiding their political affiliation.
Mr Ghani’s remarks created uproar in the house when treasury leader Asif Siddiqui stood up to counter the arguments of the opposition leader. Mr Siddiqui repeated his charge that the opposition benches were deliberately trying to create chaos in the house by raising issues which were outside its purview.
‘Planned sabotage’
The house leader alleged that planned, calculated efforts were being made to sabotage the proceedings of the house and at the same time attempts were being made to create disturbances in different parts of the city by creating a law and order situation through acts of violence and incidents of firing.
He said that elected representatives of the Haq Parast panel, including women, were being attacked and were being terrorised by supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party.
Mr Siddiqui’s speech was continuously applauded by the treasury members by the thumping of desks while the opposition members repeatedly interrupted it by shouting anti-government and anti-Musharraf slogans.
Ms Jalil tried to calm down the protesting members of the house and advised them to respect the views of each other. But chaos and confusion reigned as both sides refused to listen to each other. Finally, she announced the suspension of the session for 15 minutes and invited the treasury and opposition leaders to meet her in her chamber.
When the house reassembled, the chair asked Mr Siddiqui to continue his speech. Presenting his case on the resolution, he said that when the resolution was tabled in the house, the opposition members, instead of submitting their arguments, had staged a walkout and now, after its passage, they wanted to debate it. He defended the resolution, saying that it was general and not person-specific, as was claimed by the opposition leader.
When Asif Siddiqui wound up his speech, a resolution on the construction of a new building in place of the old one for the Sobhraj Maternity Hospital was tabled in the house, which was adopted by a majority.
Rival press conferences
Later, at a press conference, Asif Siddiqui and Masood Mehmud condemned the “unruly and undemocratic behaviour” of the opposition members in the council charging that they had never been sincere towards the people’s welfare and development of the city.
They argued that the PPP’s image had been badly tarnished after the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and it was now trying to rebuild it through agitation. They said attempts were being made to create a law and order problem in the city for the past two days.
They claimed that the car of Haq Parast councillor Mazahir Amir had been attacked in Golimar by PPP supporters causing injuries to his driver Junaid, while a Haq Parast women councillor had received injuries in an incident of firing.
Also present at the press conference was Abdul Jalil, who explained the legal aspect of the resolution, arguing that the relevant section of the SLGO clearly stated that the elections to the local government would be held on a non-party basis and members would have no political affiliation.
He claimed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement members had to quit the Rabita Committee and contested the elections on the platform of the Haq Parast panel.
Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in the council Mr Saeed Ghani, Abdul Razak, Ramzan Awan, Razak Sangrami and others also held a joint press conference.
They rejected the arguments of the treasury on the issue of disqualification of a member, saying that Section 152-A and its Sub-section 8 is limited to election campaigns, barring a member from using, directly or indirectly, his or her party’s flag, symbol and other resources for election purposes.
They criticized the Haq Parast group for using government resources to promote their party’s political agenda.
Abdul Razak and Ramzan Awan condemned the attack on Asadullah Bhutto at the Premier College and termed it an “act of terrorism.”
The opposition pledged to continue their struggle against the “repression” of the government and reaffirmed that they would not succumb to the “bullying tactics.”
