KARACHI: The members from the opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly were shocked on Thursday as when they reached the house as usual at around 11am, they were informed that their business of accountability of government departments through the Question Hour and call attention notices had lapsed for want of their presence.

When they entered the house the last item of the agenda — The Sindh Payment of Wages Bill, 2015 — was under discussion. But after the adoption of amended Clause 2, further consideration on the bill was deferred till Monday so that lawmakers had time for a detailed study of the bill to suggest appropriate amendments.

Speaking on the occasion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro said: “We don’t want to get a duplicate bill through the house by getting its copy tabled in the house because when this bill was adopted its legal requirements were different from today’s needs as in the bill there are certain matters which did not come under the provincial government.”

Earlier the opposition suffered a shock as acting Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza, contrary to the routine of calling the house to order at 11.30am, started the house proceedings at 10.25am.

The opposition lawmakers belonging to the MQM, PML-F and PML-N found themselves in a fix because during Wednesday’s session no hint was given by the chair that from Thursday the assembly proceedings would start on the scheduled time at 10am.

On Wednesday when the session continued till 3.30pm Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who was also present in the house, took serious notice of the situation that since Jan 18, when the current session began, assembly proceedings never began on time. After the session on Wednesday he held a meeting with the PPP lawmakers and asked parliamentary party leader Nisar Khuhro to ask the chair to start the session on time without waiting for the members.

Some members from the treasury benches did reach the assembly on time but the house could not be called to order before 10.25am. Even then, except MQM Parliamentary Party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad and Leader of the Opposition Khwaja Izharul Hasan no other member could make it to the assembly.

After the Question Hour, call attention notices were taken up which were seven; five of them from the day’s agenda were deferred by the chair from previous business due to the absence of the minister concerned to answer them.

From the order of the day the only notice taken up was of PPP’s Ghazala Siyal, who was present in the house. She had asked about the number of doctors available with the prisons department and was replied by Health Minister Dr Sikander Mandhro, who said at present 54 doctors were performing duties in the prisons.

The call attention notice of Nusrat Sahar Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional also lapsed as when her notice was called she was not present in the house, while the notices of three other legislators, Syed Ameer Hyder Sheerazi of the PML-N, Mohammad Shahryar Khan of the PML-F and Jamal Ahmed of the MQM, also lapsed. The deferred call attention notices of Faisal Rafique and Nadeem Razi of the MQM were taken up after deferring consideration of The Sindh Payment of Wages Bill, 2015’ to Monday to give time to the lawmakers to study the bill further.

Faisal Rafique’s call attention notice was regarding a drain in the surroundings of Ibne Sina Road and Waris Shah Road, which had not been cleaned for the last five years and had been choked with garbage. He said mosques, schools and churches were located around the drain causing difficulties to the area people. Local Bodies Minister Jam Khan Shoro assured the lawmaker that the complaint would be addressed. He also pointed out that after cleaning, the main drains had been handed over to the KMC for maintenance while small drains were the responsibility of the DMCs. However, necessary machinery was being used to clean them.

Responding to the call attention notice of Nadeem Razi of the MQM about the non-availability of offices for many elected representatives of local bodies of different union councils in the city, the local bodies minister said that the number of UCs had increased and the government was in a quandary about where to set up UC offices as funds would be required for it. However, efforts were being made to accommodate their offices in government buildings and for some UCs, where the government buildings were not available, offices were being set up in rented buildings. He said in the coming budget funds would be allocated to construct new buildings for the offices.

After completion of the agenda, the chair adjourned the session till 2pm on Friday in which the Sindh water issue would be exclusively discussed for two hours. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro said that sometime back it was decided that the water issue would be discussed in detail for which time would be fixed.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017