KARACHI: Echo of condemning the rape and killing of a young girl, which sparked violent protests in Orangi Town on Tuesday, reverberated in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday while the house removed the governor as head of the Sindh Sports Board and passed again a bill on regularisation of teachers appointed on a contract basis, which the governor had returned for reconsideration.

Nadir Magsi of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party said on a point of order that the girl raped and killed in Orangi belonged to his tribe and it was the government’s responsibility to arrest the “real culprits”, else “things will not be in my control”.

Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza said two of the suspects had been arrested, to which Mr Magsi said: “The arrested ones are the wrong persons”.

The chair said a certain group created the law and order situation in the area against the desire of the affected family, which should also be condemned. She said most of the people wounded during the Orangi violence were policemen.

‘The arrested ones are the wrong persons’

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Faisal Subzwari said the rape and murder of the little girl was a heinous crime and it needed serious actions against those involved in it.

He said police in Karachi West district had been trigger-happy and were involved in similar acts in the recent past.

Ms Raza said police should be given time to investigate the matter. She referred to reports on some TV channels which claimed that the bullet which killed a man during the riots in Orangi on Tuesday was “not fired by the police”.

Irum Azeem Farooque, a dissident of the MQM, said the “rowdy crowd” sparked violence in Orangi. She said no political party should make claims about owning a person as its worker who unfortunately died in gunfire during violent proceedings.

She said no legislation had been made against child rape, and such sad incidents would continue until those involved were given severe punishments.

Hafeezuddin of the PTI, who has defected to the Pak Sarzameen Party, claimed footage was available which clearly showed police were involved in making the situation worse.

Sindh Sports Board

Earlier, the house passed The Sindh Sports Board (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which basically dealt with restructuring its composition, reducing its number from around 50 to 22 and replacing the governor with the chief minister as its chairman.

Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro said the amendment to an ordinance of 1980 pertained to restructuring composition of the board.

He said the board had not met for more than 20 years despite spending a significant amount on it, thus the government deemed it better to make it effective.

Sports Minister Mohammad Bux Mahar said the amendment would help improve the efficiency of the board as earlier it comprised an unnecessarily large number of people.

MQM’s Syed Sardar Ahmed submitted an amendment on appointing sports minister as chairman instead of vice chairman in place of the chief minister. The amendment was rejected by the house along with another amendment he had submitted in which he proposed non-inclusion of deputy secretaries in the composition.

Opposing Mr Ahmed’s amendments, Mr Khuhro said the chief minister had replaced the governor while the sports minister was already there as the vice chairman.

Nadeem Razi of the MQM, who has defected to the PSP, suggested inclusion of two MPAs in the board as nominated by the speaker, which was approved. The bill was passed into law unanimously.

Teachers’ regularisation

The house took up The Sindh Regularisation of Teachers Appointed on Contract Basis Bill, 2018, for reconsideration after the governor returned it to the assembly with the suggestion to amend a proviso while revisiting the bill to ensure that “upon regularisation, the teachers may not be transferred from their initial places of appointment till the position on which they are working exists or only till their promotion to a next higher scale if there is non-availability of that scale position in that area.”

Mr Khuhro said the bill was passed in February for being need-based. He said it was already written in the terms of contract that no male teacher could be transferred for five years and no female teacher could be posted elsewhere for three years.

“They have been working since 2008 and had completed such terms already. After 10 years to their contract we decided to regularise them.”

He read out the bill clause-by-clause and it was passed into law unanimously.

Water woes

Responding to a calling-attention notice by Rafique Banbhan about a shortage of irrigation water in three canals of Khairpur district, Mr Khuhro said a shortage of water had affected Sindh’s agrarian economy for which the government had been calling on the judiciary to take cognizance of and ask the Indus River System Authority to answer.

He said water was continuously being denied to the deltaic regions of the Indus and put blame on the federal authorities for regulating the system from the perspective of power production instead of irrigation.

Answering another calling-attention notice by Ameer Hyder Sheerazi, the senior minister said Sindh government officials and a team of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan recently visited the Civil Hospital Thatta, checked samples of medicines and found no unregistered drugs as claimed by the member.

Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Chawla told the house responding to a calling-attention notice by Khurram Sher Zaman that none of the liquor shops were near a mosque and school as was being claimed by the member. Besides, he said 90 per cent of the existing shops in Sindh were opened during military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq’s regime.

Law Minister Zia Lanjar said the government had directed the authorities in Naushahro Feroze district to intensify their efforts to recover two ‘kidnapped’ lawyers.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018