KARACHI: The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and a lone lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement staged separate walkouts from the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday in protest over the ‘partial’ attitude of Deputy Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza who did not allow them to speak in the house.

Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Shaharyar Khan Mahar accused Ms Raza of bias and partiality, saying that she favoured treasury members and paid no attention to opposition benches.

The first walkout was staged by the MQM’s Heer Ismail Soho when her adjournment motion regarding the Sindh government’s failure to enforce the officially fixed price of sugar cane was ruled out of order.

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said that the matter was sub judice and could not be deliberated upon in the house.

Ms Raza, who was chairing the session in the absence of Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, did not allow the lawmaker to continue to speak on her motion and ruled that the motion being not maintainable was out of order.

The MQM lawmaker staged a token walkout to lodge her protest against the deputy speaker’s decision.

The second walkout was staged by PML-F and PML-N lawmakers after the chair held a voice vote — instead of asking for a division — on the resolution of Opposition Leader Mahar regarding misuse of local government funds by Town Municipal Administrations.

In his resolution, Mr Mahar urged the government to ensure that the local government funds provided to the TMAs be utilised for the purpose they were meant for.

The resolution was also supported by MQM lawmakers.

The strength of the treasury members was thin and it appeared that the government would lose in case of voting by a division.

The movers of the resolution — Muhammad Hussain and Zafar Ahmad Kamali of the MQM and Nand Kumar and Rafique Bhanban of the PML-F — said that the LG institutions were destroyed across Sindh and one could find heaps of garbage, overflowing sewage, dilapidated roads due to corruption and non-existence of elected LG institutions.

Local Government Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the deterioration of the local government institutions had begun during the regime of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf when nazims were given powers of health, education and other departments.

Ministers Dr Mandhro, Jam Khan Shoro and PPP lawmaker Dr Sohrab Sarki opposed the resolution and said that no TMA was allowed to misuse funds. They said that it was mere propaganda and a conspiracy to give a bad name to the PPP.

Mr Mahar urged the speaker to call for a division of the house to have a vote on his resolution. However, the speaker turned down his request, held a voice vote instead and ruled that the resolution was rejected by the majority.

As the PML-F lawmakers as well as at least one MPA belonging to the PML-N staged the walkout, another PML-N lawmaker Sorath Thebo, through her resolution, demanded that the Sindh government stop selling lands of the province to Bahria Town and other housing schemes at cheaper rates and instead the lands be allotted to the poor.

She said that the owners of Bahria Town were minting billion of rupees and giving the government a charity in the name of setting up universities.

Senior Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro of the PPP and Kamran Akhtar of the MQM opposed the resolution and observed that Bahria Town was doing a good service for the province.

The house rejected the resolution with a majority when put to a vote.

The house, which was called to order at 10.45am, was adjourned at 2pm to reassemble on Wednesday at 10am by the chair.

Earlier, the house unanimously adopted the resolution of the MQM’s Irum Azeem Farooque demanding action against the illegal construction of high-rise buildings in the province, including Karachi.

The resolution of Muhammad Hussain Khan of the MQM recommending to the Sindh government to approach the federal government to take steps for issuance of computerised national identity cards to the people of Orangi Town was also passed.

The resolution also called for setting up one or two more offices of the National Database Registration Authority to facilitate the people of the locality.

Other lawmakers of the MQM and the PPP also pointed out difficulties being faced by the people to get their CNICs, while illegal immigrants were easily getting them.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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