KARACHI: Amid a noisy protest, the Sindh Assembly on Friday passed a resolution against Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain for seeking foreign intervention in the internal matters of the country and his diatribes against the armed forces.

Ruling Pakistan Peoples Party also joined three opposition parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, PML-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — in condemning the beleaguered MQM chief and demanding that the federal government initiate a legal action against him.

The parliamentary party leaders of the PML-F, PTI and PML-N — Nand Kumar, Samar Ali Khan and Haji Shafi Jamote — and Dr Sohrab Sarki of the PPP signed the resolution, which was read out by Mr Kumar.

Before taking up of the business from the order of the day by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who called the house in order at 11.20am, Mr Kumar, Mr Jamote and Mr Khan asked the chair to take up their resolution. But, the speaker advised them to take their seats and their resolution would be taken up after official business. The chair then moved on to the questions hour.

Before taking up the last item of the agenda — governor’s message for reconsideration of the Sindh Physiotherapy Council bill —, Mr Kumar drew the attention of the chair to the resolution.

The speaker with the permission of the house allowed him to read out the resolution. As soon as he started reading, MQM lawmakers stood in their seats and started shouting against the chair’s decision. However, the mover read out the resolution, which was was adopted with a majority vote amid pandemonium.

The chair called it a day at 2pm to reassemble on Monday.

The resolution reads: “The house condemns the statements of Mr Altaf Hussain asking for intervention by foreign institutions and countries in the internal matters of Pakistan and statements against the Pakistan army and Sindh Rangers. His statements asking for the break-up of Sindh is also strongly condemned.

“This house recommends to the government of Sindh to approach the federal government to take strong notice of these highly objectionable utterances of Mr Altaf Hussain and take legal action against him,” it concluded.

No major threat of flood in Sindh

Friday was the first day of the assembly’s post-budget session.

The adjournment motion of MQM’s Heer Soho regarding loadshedding on Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s pumping stations by the K-Electict was on the order of the day but it was ruled out of order on technical grounds.

However, Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah asked the federal government to warn the K-Electric to desist from creating obstacles in supply of water to the citizens.

Besides, the report on 1st biannual monitoring on the implementation of the national finance commission award from July, 2013 to December, 2013 as required under clause 3(B) of Article 160 of the Constitution was laid before the assembly.

In response to the call attention notice of Nusrat Sahar Abbasi of the PML-F, Irrigation Minister Nisar Khuhro gave a detailed statement about flood situation in the province.

He said that there were 45 sensitive points and on 18 places necessary repair work was in progress and various schemes being implemented for strengthening dykes would be completed during the year.

He also said that there was no threat of 2010 like high flood in Sindh as the water flow in the Indus would remain between 600,000 to 700,000 cusecs.

He said that there had been evacuation of people living in the Katcha areas but “we would meet the situation easily”.

In response to the call attention notice of PML-F’s Shahryar Khan Mahar, parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikander Mandhro informed the house that any increase in the fees of private schools in the province should be carried out with the approval of a committee of the education department in accordance with a 2005 notification.

The house also carried legislation business by adopting the Sindh Board of Technical Education (Amended) Bill, 2014, which was aimed at changing its controlling authority from the Sindh governor to the chief minister.

Three bills — The Sindh Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Bill 2015, The Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and The Malir University of Science and Technology, Karachi Bill, 2015 — were also introduced.

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (Amendment) Ordinance , 2015 was also laid in the house.

The chair also announced that the governor had given his assent to the seven bills — The Sindh Assembly Service Tribunals (second, third and fourth amendment) Bills, 2015, The Security of Vulnerable Establishments Bill, 2015, The Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Sindh Workers Welfare Fund Bill, 2015, The Indus University of Health Sciences Bill, 2015, The AO Postgraduate Institute of Orthopaedic Sciences Bill, 2015 and The Sindh Finance Bill, 2015.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2015

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