KARACHI: Admitting security lapses that led to the Sehwan carnage at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine by a suicide bomber, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told the Sindh Assembly on Monday that the threat was far from over as terrorists were attempting to strike Karachi.

In his policy statement on the Sehwan tragedy on the floor of the house, the CM conceded that the deployment of police at the shrine was insufficient. “We ought to [have been] more prepared to meet the situation in view of a similar terrorist attack at the shrine of Shah Noorani [in Balochistan].”

The first day of the current session of the assembly began on Monday morning and Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani gave the floor to the leader of the house for making a policy statement on the recent Sehwan tragedy.

He termed the incident not only an attack on Sindh but on the entire humanity.

The CM told the lawmakers that the Sindh government had prepared a security policy to protect shrines and other places where terrorists tried to strike in a bid to inflict harm to the maximum number of people.

He said that the government had requested the federal government to put certain religious organisations on the watch list as these outfits had contacts with militants. “Karachi is on the target of terrorists,” he added.

The Sindh government was determined to meet the challenge and eliminate the militants, he said, asking the lawmakers from both sides of the aisle not to bring politics and their differences in the fight against terrorism.

“We have to unite to meet the challenge because the war against terrorism is a national cause,” he said.

About the Sehwan tragedy, he said that the man who carried out the suicide bombing did not hail from Sindh. He said that investigations were going on and soon the identification of the bomber and his facilitators would be made.

He said that 81 persons were killed — 46 men, 10 women and 15 children — and 383 wounded. Seventy-eight of the dead were identified and remaining three were yet to be identified.

Mr Shah said that there was no power when the incident occurred at the shrine because of load-shedding. He said during the then PPP government, then water and power minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had provided a separate direct electricity line to the shrine but it was disconnected later on the pretext of power theft.

He criticised Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and said that although he had only visited Karachi once, he was giving lecture to the Sindh government.

Opposition protest

Opposition lawmakers refused to listen to the speaker when he stopped them from expressing their feelings on the Sehwan tragedy after the policy statement of the CM.

The speaker wanted to complete the official business before giving the floor to the opposition lawmakers, who feared that the house would be adjourned after completion of the agenda without giving them chance to speak.

The opposition lawmakers — led by Leader of the Opposition Khwaja Izharul Hasan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Samar Ali Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Nand Kumar of the PML-Functional and Sorath Thebo of the PML-N — left their seats and surrounded the rostrum of the speaker and chanted slogans.

Speaker Durrani, after failing to convince the opposition, briefly adjourned the house for five minutes at 12.17pm. When he returned he took up the official business amid opposition’s protest and then gave the floor to Khwaja Izhar, who accused him of not doing justice with his office.

The speaker made it clear that he would not take dictation from any side and he could bring a no-confidence motion against him.

He asked the leaders of all parliamentary parties to submit the list of their members who wanted to discuss the Sehwan tragedy.

Syed Sardar Ahmed, Sabir Qaimkhani, Zafar Kamali and Heer Soho of the MQM, Samar Ali Khan and Dr Seema Zia of the PTI, Sorath Thebo of PML-N and Waryam Faqeer of the PML-F spoke.

They termed the Sindh government “incompetent” and held it responsible for the loss of lives of so many people in the shrine attack. They claimed that the chief minister, instead of rushing to Sehwan, went to the airport to receive former president Asif Zardari.

They asked as to why the government, despite serious threats, failed to make proper security arrangements at the shrine.

The CM was also criticised for leaving the house after making the policy statement without listening to the viewpoint of the opposition.

Monday’s sitting was adjourned at around 2pm to reconvene on Tuesday (today).

Local government law amended, again Earlier, the house took up the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was passed by voice vote.

After the latest amendment in Section 27 of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013, the chairman and vice chairman of a union committee/council, who are directly elected, could not be removed from their post by a vote of no-confidence.

According to LG Minister Jam Khan Shoro, if any chairman/vice chairman, elected on the basis of direct franchise, is found to be involved in corruption or violation of rules, his case could be referred to the local government commission under Rule 25 of Section 25 of the LG law and after, if the case is proved after a probe, the commission could send its finding to the local government department, which would send the case against the person concerned to the local council concerned to proceed against him or her accordingly.

Talking to the media after the assembly session, Khwaja Izhar asked the Sindh High Court chief justice to set up a judicial commission to probe into the Sehwan carnage and to supervise the distribution of the compensation amount among the victims and their families to ensure transparency.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017