KARACHI: The joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly continued its protest against the “partial” attitude of Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza for a second consecutive day on Friday and staged a walkout, allowing the ruling party to pass a government bill without discussion.

The opposition also staged a similar protest a day before when they walked out of the house when their motions were not allowed to be taken up and threatened to boycott Friday’s session and carry out house proceedings on the steps of the assembly building.

The house was called to order at 11am with the deputy speaker in the chair. After taking the call-attention notices on the order of the day, the chair gave the floor to Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Khuhro for taking up the report of a government bill — The Sindh Livestock Breeding Bill 2016 — for consideration. However, she ignored Mohammad Hussain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement who stood on his seat and sought her permission to speak on a point of order.

Her denial to the opposition lawmaker triggered a noisy protest in the house as Mr Hussain accused her of partiality and announced that the joint opposition was boycotting the proceedings against her attitude.

All opposition lawmakers present in the house staged a walkout.

Taking advantage of their absence, the 49-clause Sindh Livestock Breeding Bill 2016 was passed in a mere seven minutes.

However, Mr Khuhro felt that the passage of a bill on the basis of majority and without any discussion did not look good.

He suggested the deputy speaker call the opposition members in her chamber and explain to them the legal procedure to take up the motions in the house. He said that getting the bill through without discussion on the basis of majority did not augur well as the opposition’s presence in the house was the beauty of democracy.

Responding to the minister, the chair recalled that she already had drawn attention of the opposition on Thursday when she read out Rule 73(2) regarding discretionary powers of the speaker to kill any motion in his/her chamber. She said that the opposition members were welcome to come to her chamber.

Ms Raza called it a day at 1pm to reassemble on Monday.

Earlier, soon after Fateha MQM lawmakers Mohammad Hussain and Saifuddin Khalid wanted to speak on a point of order but the chair told them they would get time only after completion of the order of the day.

After the Question Hour, when call-attention notices were being taken, Mr Khalid again asked the chair to allow him to speak on a point of order. The chair in a harsh tone told him to either sit down or leave the house. Mr Khalid, in protest over the attitude, staged a token walkout.

The deputy speaker then gave the floor to Mr Hussain to speak on his call-attention notice about a protest demonstration against robberies in Orangi Town on Feb 19. The lawmaker said that a man was killed and 45 others were wounded in “police firing” on the protesters. Dozens of people were also arrested and implicated in ‘false cases’, he added.

Responding to the notice, Mr Khuhro said that some armed persons were among the protesters and they clashed with the police. He said that an inquiry had been ordered and assured the house that all legal requirements would be met.

Emotional exchange

The chair asked Mr Khalid, who returned to the house after the token walkout, to take up his call-attention notice. However, Mr Khalid, an MPA from Orangi Town, became emotional and said that he wanted to inform the house about the actual facts of the Feb 19 protest. As he was speaking the chair switched off his mike and made it clear that she would not work under pressure. “You are torturing me,” she said.

The chair’s remarks made Mr Khalid more emotional as he told Ms Raza that he was not interested in coming to a forum where he could not raise the issues of the people of his constituency. Upon this, the chair asked him that he could leave the house and threatened him of exercising her ‘last option’ if his attitude did not change.

Ms Raza gave him one last chance to take up his call-attention notice. Finally, Mr Khalid spoke about the sewage problem in a part of the city and said that despite repeated requests to the authorities concerned, the issue was not yet resolved.

Responding to his notice, Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that he had received such complaints on a daily basis but the complaint in the area the MPA mentioned was already addressed.

MQM’s Kamran Akhtar in his call-attention notice asked about the fate of an agreement between a Chinese firm and the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board under which the former was supposed to lift garbage from two Karachi districts from the month of February.

The LG minster informed the house that the firm had launched its operation from March 9 and it had placed 600, out of total 18,000, imported dustbins at different places for garbage collection.

MQM’s Syed Nadeem Razi asked about the current status of a development scheme (ADP No 111 of 2016-17) in his call-attention notice. Works and Services Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said that the said scheme was related to the repair of two vehicles which had been in the use of Fatimah Jinnah and not about construction of any road. He asked the MPA to sit with him to sort out the schemes’ number.

In response to a question of Khurram Sherzaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf about reports of harassment of Pakhtuns living in Karachi on the pretext of a crackdown against illegal Afghan immigrants, Senior Minister Khuhro said that Pakhtuns did not need to worry as the crackdown was restricted to illegal Afghans and Bengalis. Law-enforcement agencies were carrying out legal action against illegal immigrants without any discrimination, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2017