KARACHI: Members of the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday strongly criticised the long spells of loadshedding in the province and warned the federal government that they would go to Islamabad and stage a sit-in outside the Prime Minister House and office of the water and power minister if immediate relief was not provided.

Before starting the budget discussion, Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Ghulam Quadir stood on a point of order and said that the people of Sindh were facing 18 to 22 hours of loadshedding in Ramazan.

Responding to the point of order, Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah said that the people of Sindh would not tolerate the oppressive behaviour of the federal government anymore and would not hesitate even going to Islamabad to stage a sit-in outside the office of the water and power minister and the PM House.

He recalled that PPP-Parliamentarian President Asif Zardari had written a letter to the PM in May 2015 urging him to stop loadshedding, the PM did not reply. This year, the duration of loadshedding had crossed 20-22 hours in a day, he added.

He said that the Sindh government had installed a 100 MW power plant in Nooriabad but Hesco refused to purchase power and claimed that it had enough power. Terming the statement shameful, he said if they had enough power then why Hesco was carrying out loadshedding.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said that even in his own locality people were getting no electricity but heft bills.

Leader of the Opposition Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement suggested that it would be appropriate that every member could speak about loadshedding on his turn while discussing the budget.

Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro said that despite Hesco’s commitment about providing uninterrupted power during Sehr and Iftar, people were experiencing long spells of loadshedding.

MQM stages walkout

The house also witnessed a token walkout by lawmakers belonging to the MQM over registration of multiple terrorism cases against their party leaders and lawmakers by Rangers.

Khawaja Izhar was also critical of the attitude of the Sindh government and asked the rulers to take a clear stand.

He questioned as to whether there was any writ of the government or it has given up its role in the so-called Karachi operation.

“No doubt today we are facing issues and the PPP government has become a silent spectator. You can smile on us but rest assured tomorrow when you would be facing a similar situation then we would not listen to your stories that Sindh is under attack,” he said.

“Are we not part of Sindh and is it not the responsibility of the federal and provincial government to question the authorities why they are treating us shabbily?”

He informed the house that on Tuesday night the Rangers had lodged an FIR against MQM coordination committee member Amin-ul-Haq, who was not only a thorough gentleman but also a former member of the National Assembly.

He said that before booking him in a terrorism case the authorities should consult us about the allegations.

He said that he himself was booked in 27 FIRs and not only him, Dr Farooq Sattar, MQM chief Altaf Hussain and even woman activists had been booked in false cases.

“What is happening in your democratic government? I know what would be your response,” he said and staged a token walkout. All MQM legislators followed him.

In response to his emotional speech, senior PPP minister Nisar Khuhro said: “I agree with the contention that excesses are being committed against the MQM but many PPP friends are also facing the same situation.”

He said that the operation was launched on the insistence of MQM friends, who had even advised the government to launch a Karachi-like operation in interior Sindh to restore peace.

Budget discussion

On Wednesday 10 members from the both sides of the aisle took part in the the general discussion on the provincial budget.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional lawmaker Sharyar Mahar said that the government included old schemes in the budget 2016 despite the fact that it failed to implement the same schemes during the previous years.

He said it augured well that the government had allocated enough funds for education, health, law and order and local government, but it failed to tackle the real issue of corruption and bad governance.

Syed Khalid Ahmad of the MQM said: “We are hearing about four projects of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board for the last four years but not a single project has been implemented.”

Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said that the budget lacked effective planning and vision. She said that despite allocation of huge amount on education, the quality of education was falling.

Mahesh Malani, Ghazala Sial and Rehana Leghari of the PPP, Jamal Ahamd and Naheed Begum of the MQM and Syed Shah Hussain Sheerazi and Haji Shafi Jamote of the PML-N also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016