KARACHI: Two minor parties in the opposition ranks on Monday openly announced that they were not part of the combined opposition in the Sindh Assembly, which boycotted the day’s session after a minister declared that the government would not make the leader of the opposition head of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

After boycotting the session, members belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Grand Democratic Alliance gathered on the stairs of the Old Sindh Assembly Building and staged a sit-in for a while. They chanted slogans against the government and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s leadership.

Everything was going smooth until the conclusion of the calling-attention notices’ segment, when Leader of the Opposition Firdous Shamim Naqvi rose on a point of order, expressing his disappointment over the fact that despite a lapse of more than six months the house had failed to form the PAC and standing committees.

He referred to a recent statement of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in which he had said his government would not offer the PAC chief slot to the opposition leader.

Two TLP and lone MMA lawmakers dissociate themselves from combined opposition

Mr Naqvi said the opposition would have been even stronger and offering a greater contribution to the democratic order had the PAC chief’s slot been given to the opposition.

Referring to slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who had inked the Charter of Democracy with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s leader Nawaz Sharif, he said that she had not just agreed in the CoD to hand over PAC slot to opposition in the National Assembly, but the same also applied to the federating units.

PTI, MQM-P, GDA boycott proceedings

He claimed that the joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly had decided that they would “for the time being” boycott the assembly’s session if the government did not agree to allow the opposition to head the PAC.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said it was not the proper manner to resolve an issue. Besides, the opposition could not get whatever it wanted by making demands.

“The assembly’s rules say members on each of the house committees are to be elected and those members would then vote to decide who will head a committee,” said the chair.

While the chair was trying to settle the matter, PTI’s parliamentary party leader Haleem Adil Shaikh rose without the chair’s consent and spoke angrily without a microphone. Subsequently, members belonging to the PTI stood and started thumping desks while the chair was in conversation.

Speaker Durrani asked the opposition parties to show, if any such rules existed in the Rules of Procedure of the provincial legislature, that made it mandatory that the PAC would be headed by the opposition.

Pointing at the opposition members who were shouting loudly, thumping desks and tearing up copies of the day’s agenda, he said: “They shout and by this want to force me to do what pleases them, but I cannot be forced by anyone.”

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said it was the PPP that pioneered a tradition to get the opposition’s share in heading the committees since 2008.

“Our party started to accommodate the opposition by allowing its members to head committees in the house. We do it in accordance with the ratio and number of the opposition members in the house. At present, we decided to offer them to head 14 such committees. But their demands only grew when they asked us to give chairmanship of eight of those committees of their choice, which too we did agree to.

“But, then they said that their members should be more than the treasury members in those committees, which is not possible, because these committees are formed through elections; and since we have majority in the house, how can they [opposition] get majority on the committees,” he said.

Mr Ghani said the treasury benches were not bound to agree to what the opposition wanted as it was not the right of the opposition. “We can agree on some matters; and we cannot agree on others.”

While the minister was speaking, Mr Naqvi led the opposition members towards the speaker’s rostrum where they chanted slogans against the government and tore copies of the order of the day.

Mohammad Qasim and Sarwat Fatima of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Abdul Rasheed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), however, conveniently sat on their seats.

The rest of the opposition members marched out of the house and gathered on the stairs of the assembly building.

Speaker Durrani said he had “guided” the leader of the opposition about the issues concerning the committees when the latter had come to him and got his meeting with the chief minister, yet, “his words are like no-confidence against me”.

He said because of the situation in the country, the PPP had accorded unconditional support to the federal government and same should be applied everywhere.

Mr Ghani said again: “We will not give PAC to the opposition. First, they must sign on the Charter of Democracy and accept it in full, then we’ll give the PAC to them. They boycott the session, we’ll go to them to get them back to the house, but we’ll not give them PAC; and we’ll give them the 14 committees but not what they want.”

TLP, MMA distance themselves from combined opposition

TLP’s Mohammad Qasim condemned the major opposition parties in the house for ignoring the TLP and MMA in awarding chairmanship of committees.

He said his party was on the opposition benches but was not part of the combined opposition.

MMA’s sole member, Abdul Rasheed, called the boycotting members as the “incomplete opposition” and condemned some opposition members for humiliating the smaller groups in the house.

“We are not part of the puppet show that they [main opposition parties] have created. We are the real opposition, which plays its constructive part and not just fights for petty interests.”

“We have never been invited to attend meetings of the combined opposition,” he said.

Earlier, Saeed Ghani informed the house that 11 out of 15 reverse osmosis (RO) plants in the city, which were not functional for a while for various reasons, had resumed functioning and the rest would soon be made operational.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2019