KARACHI: Three major opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly staged walkout three times during Thursday’s session, while two of the three members of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan present in the house boycotted the proceedings in the dying hours of one of the noisiest sessions of the legislature during discussion on the budget for the next nine months of the current fiscal.

Speaker Siraj Durrani termed it a “sad day” in the history of the provincial assembly in which instead of discussing the budget most members from both sides of the aisle hurled invective against each other and abused each other’s leadership.

In the heat of argument during the session, a treasury member accused another sitting on the opposite benches that the latter voted for the PPP candidates in the recent Senate election.

Rancorous exchange between PPP, MQM-P members witnessed in house

By saying this — as he later realised its gravity and tried to make amends — he had accused his party of purchasing votes.

The first walkout by the opposition, barring the TLP, was witnessed when Shehla Raza, minister for women development and former deputy speaker in the two previous tenures, made a lengthy speech and ignored the chair’s request to sit back on her seat. They returned to the house after a while.

Ms Raza’s speech was suave and tactful in the beginning in which she remained confined to the performance of her department. She complained that budget for the department was insufficient and demanded filling of vacancies and increase in funds.

She also spoke about the government’s achievements in improving social sector and investment in capacity building of police to maintain law and order.

Later, she spoke at length comparing governance in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is ruling for the second time running. She read out news reports and rejected the PTI’s claims in several sectors.

She ridiculed the PTI, sitting on the opposition benches in Sindh, adding the latter’s claims about better law and order in KP were false due to the reports suggesting traders were forced there to pay extortion to Taliban.

She also criticised the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan by saying its mayor had failed to run the health facilities and improve hygienic conditions in the city despite generous funding from the Sindh government.

The opposition benches again rose and protested when another PPP member, Arbab Lutfullah, rejected the claims of Imran Shah of the PTI about poor medical facilities in Thar.

Thar’s dogs

Mr Lutfullah said he belonged to Kapusar area of Thar about which the PTI member made ‘false’ claims, adding that dogs roaming around and sitting beneath trees in Thar was a normal sight and if Mr Shah saw a dog taking shelter beneath a tree on the premises of a facility it posed no danger.

In her speech GDA’s Nusrat Abbasi fired a broadside against the government in which she accused it of being involved in corrupt practices. While referring to Larkana, the political capital of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, she indirectly uttered an offensive expression for a key PPP leader.

The reply of PPP’s Taimur Talpur was equally lethal. He claimed: “The [opposition] member, who had sold a vote in the Senate election to the Peoples Party, is too sitting in this house.

“Your leaders don’t know your vote had come our way. And, the Constitution says one who does not vote for one’s party cannot stay member of the assembly.”

Incendiary language

His incendiary words created uproar in the opposition benches. Nusrat Abbasi was the first who moved in front of the chair chanting slogans, though hardly audible. Later, the rest of the opposition joined her and staged another walkout.

Later, Mr Talpur told the media that his intention was to inform about those people who had approached the PPP to trade their votes. However, the party rejected their offers.

Provincial minister Nasir Shah said it could be slip of tongue on part of Mr Talpur. He said PPP did not approach anyone for getting votes; it got votes because of chaos in opposition ranks then.

MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain’s critical words against the PPP’s founder late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and other leaders were not received well by the treasury benches.

Mr Hussain had accused the PPP of being responsible for the fall of Dhaka, PIA plane hijacking during Gen Zia’s regime etc. He also criticised then chief minister Mumtaz Bhutto for getting the language bill passed.

Mumtaz Bhutto is now a PTI leader and his son Amir Bux Bhutto is the party’s provincial president and was in the speaker’s gallery and witnessed the proceedings for a while.

PPP’s Sohail Siyal said “this party’s fugitive leader had said in India that making of Pakistan was a blunder” without elaborating.

He said those who were in the assembly now did not know they were here because of late Bhutto who was creator of the country’s Constitution.

He also criticised the PTI, saying, according to PM Khan’s claim, he should have given jobs to more than 200,000 people in his first 40 days in office.

Mr Hussain and other MQM members, during Mr Siyal’s speech, kept protesting in front of the chair, for not giving them due time to speak.

Mr Hussain said that people of Karachi were ‘raising’ Sindh and the PPP would have to make Karachi believe the fact that it cared about the city.

Mr Siyal, in his reply, said it was the people of Sindh who ‘raised’ Karachi and opened up their hearts in 1947 when people migrated to Sindh. He said there was no compromise on the division of Sindh and Kalabagh dam.

The opposition walked out for the third time during the speech of Marvi Rashdi of PPP when she said earlier there was just one anti-Sindh party and now there was a jumble of them.

Overall 20 members spoke during the session — 10 each from either side.

Continuous bad blood between the opposition and treasury benches overshadowed the speech made by Health Minister Azra Pechuho.

In her maiden speech, Ms Pechuho kept herself confined to her ministry’s achievements and challenges. Opposition leader Firdous Naqvi praised her saying it was the only ‘positive’ thing from the government side.

TLP’s parliamentary leader Mohammad Qasim stood up when his own colleague Sarwat Fatima was asked to speak.

Speaker Durrani asked him to sit back down. But, he continued to speak for a while and his words were hardly audible. What the galleries could hear were two words “Holland” and “governor”.

Later, he left the house and Ms Fatima followed him leaving her speech incomplete.

The speaker said he had not seen such painful proceedings in the assembly in the past 30 years of his parliamentary experience. He said the whole world was watching the proceedings through the assembly’s live feed.

“I felt very sad. I request you not to repeat such things tomorrow,” said Mr Durrani.

Opposition leader Firdous Naqvi, and parliamentary leaders of PTI, MQM and GDA, Haleem Adil Shaikh, Kanwar Naveed and Hasnain Mirza, respectively, regretted the proceedings and said they would ensure peaceful atmosphere on Friday (today).

The same assurance was given by provincial ministers Imtiaz Shaikh, Saeed Ghani, Ismail Rahu and Sardar Shah.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2018