KARACHI, Aug 28: MPA Syed Qaim Ali Shah of PPP on Thursday accused the government of sabotaging agenda of the requisitioned session of the Sindh Assembly by resorting to delaying tactics so that, he claimed, crucial issues concerning people couldn’t be discussed and the government’s failures were not exposed.

He spelt this out while addressing a news conference after Thursday’s proceedings of the House.

Conceding that since the opposition had requestioned the session, it was responsible for providing quorum, Mr Shah argued that when business of the House was being decided by the government, the onus of quorum on the opposition was untenable.

He said that the opposition wanted to know what follow-up actions the government had taken with regard to the compliance of the two resolutions of the Sindh Assembly on Greater Thal Canal.

We wanted them to fully comply with the Article-155 of the Constitution for stopping construction of the GTC. But the government is not interested in discussing these things, he regretted.

He also accused the Speaker, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, of being partisan and not honouring his words, while talking to the opposition members in his chambers, on containing the rumpus in the House caused by Rahila Tiwana’s chairing of session.

He pointed out that when counting on the motion for extension in time got under way, doors of the House had not been closed to facilitate the treasury benches to convert its deficit into majority. This, he claimed, was a partisan act.

He asked the Speaker not to guillotine the proceedings as Kalabagh dam, Greater Thal Canal and other issues on the agenda were of great significance for the people of Sindh.

He said that opposition’s request for extension in time of the assembly was nothing unusual as in the past government had carried out business late in the afternoon.

He said that the issues which the opposition had sought to be discussed were also important for the government.

He told a questioner that the government’s attitude was causing unrest in the province and if it turned violent, the responsibility would rest on the government.

When asked to comment on President Musharraf’s statement about creating new provinces, the PPP leader claimed that this indicated his plan to undermine the Constitution in which boundaries and names of the provinces had been mentioned. ”For breaking the provinces and creating new entities, he will have to abrogate the Constitution,” he remarked.