KARACHI: What was probably the last private members’ day of the Sindh Assembly’s current five-year tenure concluded without handling its heavy agenda when opposition members complained that their business was “bulldozed” by the treasury benches, that got their own resolutions passed.

The day’s session was a sparsely-attended affair in which both sides of the house turned up in few numbers. It began two hours and 15 minutes behind the scheduled time and lasted for less than two hours.

Amid noise in the house, a resolution tabled by a treasury member against the recent increase in charges for the registration of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) was passed with a majority as some opposition members without comprehending the text opposed it as a token of reprisal.

Opposition complains govt ‘bulldozes’ its agenda

The resolution was presented by Heer Ismail Soho, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker who has defected to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, which asked the Sindh government to approach the federal government and persuade it to withdraw the “recent increase in the charges for CNIC registration by Nadra”.

The resolution further said the exorbitant charges related to Nadra registration would make it difficult for citizens to have CNICs while casting their vote in the coming general election.

“Therefore, to ensure that voting is accessible to everyone, free CNICs should be issued (to citizens) and the number of mobile registration vans should be increased,” said the resolution.

The mover said all such initiatives would definitely increase the participation of citizens in the general election.

The resolution was drafted by the treasury members in the backdrop of Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani’s suggestion earlier in the day, when he had asked some members, who had taken up the issue and condemned it, to draft a resolution on it and present it in the house.

Ms Soho said the resolution reflected aspirations of a majority of the people of Sindh and the rest of the country for whom such an increase in the fees was unaffordable.

The opposition members later said they did not oppose the resolution because of its content, but because the way it was presented was not appropriate.

“The government always bulldozes our business even on private members’ days, and today it did the same,” said Naheed Begum of the MQM, who now represents the Pak Sarzameen Party, while speaking to the media after the session was abruptly adjourned by the chair till Friday.

She said the day’s session had carried heavy agenda with a lot of bills presented by private members and none of them was taken up.

“And this could be the last private members’ day of this assembly’s tenure,” said another PSP member.

The smooth proceedings were disrupted when Nand Lal, parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, asked the chair to take up his bill to amend the Sindh Hindus Marriage Act out of turn, citing he had to leave for somewhere on urgent grounds.

Law Minister Zia Lanjar said the chair should run the house as per the order of the day on which Mr Lal’s bill was among the last things of the agenda.

Senior Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Khuhro said the member’s insistence on taking up only his bill out of turn was amusing. He said the day belonged to all private members thus the order of the agenda should be followed.

Thereafter an exchange of words between Mr Lal and Mr Khuhro ensued; the latter said the PML-F lawmaker should refrain from blame game.

“By uttering such words you are deliberately creating hard feelings in the house,” he said, adding that the PPP government had always allowed the opposition members’ bills to be passed unlike what others did when the PPP sat on the opposition benches.

While the discussion on the issue continued, Mr Khuhro took up another issue with the chair in which he said a number of government bills had been lying with the standing committees of the house for long, which should be given back to the house to get them passed.

“Many bills that have been sent to the standing committees and have not been sent back for long be recalled to the house so that they are presented (in the house),” said a motion tabled by Mr Khuhro.

The motion was passed by a majority of the members.

Speaking on the amendment bill regarding the Sindh Hindus Marriage Act, the parliamentary affairs minister said the mover had included at least seven clauses in his draft, which were already in the bill.

Speaker Durrani said the amendment bill was already on the agenda and the mover should show patience and wait for his turn.

Law Minister Lanjar said the bill had certain lacunas, which needed to be vetted by his ministry before being presented before the house.

Adjournment motion

Later, the house rejected an adjournment motion tabled by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Khurram Sher Zaman in which the mover wanted the house to discuss the water crisis in Karachi.

Mr Khuhro said there definitely was a water supply problem in the metropolis, but the matter could not be properly understood until the local government minister gave his take on it.

Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro conceded that the city did have the issue of water shortage, but the provincial government had taken necessary measures to increase the amount of water meant to cater to the sprawling metropolis.

He said the issue was neither urgent nor a recent occurrence as required in the assembly’s rules of procedure to take up an adjournment motion.

The chair put up the motion under Rule 90 of the rules of procedure before the house and rejected it for less than one-fifth of the total assembly members rose in their seats.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018