KARACHI: For the second day in a row three major opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday staged a protest over the government’s refusal to give the Public Accounts Committee leadership to the opposition leader and Speaker Siraj Durrani’s order that a resolution of the opposition condemning the provincial government’s alleged bad governance should be tabled after the Question Hour.

Leader of the Opposition Firdous Shamim Naqvi led the lawmakers belonging to his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Grand Democratic Alliance to boycott the day’s session after raucous and loud protest and a sit-in in front of the chair as Speaker Durrani adjourned the session for Thursday.

It was the weekly private members’ day in which dozens of private resolutions, motions and bills filed mostly by opposition members were included in the order of the day.

As the day’s proceedings began, initially Deputy Speaker Rehana Laghari was in the chair only to be replaced soon by Mr Durrani. MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain rose and sought the chair’s permission to table a resolution.

Mock assembly passes bill not allowed to be tabled in the Sindh Assembly

The resolution was signed by the three large opposition parties in which they criticised the Sindh government for failing to show good governance during Pakistan Peoples Party’s rule over the province during the past 11 years. It said the government had failed to provide drinking water to the people of Sindh, while the same situation was being faced by the social sector.

The movers, as per the resolution they had submitted to the assembly’s secretariat, alleged that the law and order situation in Sindh was again deteriorating. To prove it they cited the attack on a PTI lawmaker, killing of MQM-P’s Ali Raza Abidi and several other incidents of killing and sexual assault on women in the recent past.

They claimed that the conditions in Sindh were worse than in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They also questioned why so many graft cases had been filed against senior authorities in the province.

They maintained that the provincial government was refusing to make the opposition leader head of the PAC because “they fear it will expose their corrupt practices committed in the past 10 years”.

The resolution demanded that the Sindh government provide basic facilities to the people of the province and accord representation to the opposition in the PAC and other standing committees.

Speaker Durrani told Mr Hussain that he would allow him to move his resolution after the Question Hour was over. However, Mr Hussain insisted that he should be allowed to speak by suspending the day’s agenda as “our resolution is extremely important”.

The chair expressed his displeasure over the MQM-P lawmaker’s insistence, saying: “You come here to disturb the house. This is not the way. I have told you that I’ll allow you to table your resolution after the Question Hour.”

Other members of the major opposition parties also rose. They spoke from their seats and thumped desks. They tore up the day’s agenda despite the chair’s warning that those papers bore certain words warranting extreme care.

Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh said: “They [opposition members] want to impose their diktat through hooliganism, but that will not be allowed here.”

The chair tried to pacify the situation but the opposition lawmakers moved closer in front of the chair and kept chanting slogans against the provincial government.

The lawmakers belonging to the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal sat unmoved on their seats as they had announced a day earlier that they were not part of the opposition alliance that included the three large parties.

When he found it hard to maintain peace in the house, Mr Durrani deferred the proceedings for 10 minutes. However, when he came again to resume the house, he found many opposition lawmakers sitting on the floor in front of him.

Mr Durrani asked them to rise, saying, “Now, I hope your protest has got headlines in the media.”

He announced beginning of the Question Hour asking the protesting lawmakers to follow the procedure as had been given in the assembly rules.

The opposition members kept chanting slogans, tearing up papers and demanding that the chair allow them to table the resolution.

Finding it difficult to run the house smoothly, the chair adjourned the house for the next two days.

Mock assembly session

The opposition members marched outside and congregated on the stairs of the old Sindh Assembly Building, where they set up a mock assembly session.

They put MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain as speaker of, what they called, the Awami Assembly.

The opposition leader claimed the ruling party in Sindh had failed to solve the public’s problems. He said Sindh’s cities were not being supplied with water fit for human consumption while the law and order situation was deteriorating again. “The Sindh government is doing nothing barring lip service,” he said.

Mr Hussain said the opposition parties had discussed the resolution, which the speaker did not allow to be tabled in the house, in the mock assembly and got it passed unanimously.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2019