KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously passed two resolutions on the incidents of violence in Balochistan that left scores of people mainly belonging to the Hazara community and security agencies’ personnel martyred.

Another resolution condemned deaths in Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka. The house unanimously passed another resolution about the death of an infant girl because of alleged wrong treatment at a city hospital.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Nadir Magsi moved a resolution in the house condemning a recent attack on the Hazara community in Quetta.

He condemned the attack saying that the incident and the one in which several personnel of the law enforcement agencies were killed in Balochistan’s Ormara region were part of the same agenda by the perpetrators bent to destabilise the country.

“They [the plotters] chose the country’s sensitive province on both occasions to inflict harm on our nation,” said Mr Magsi.

‘We should support the family that has lost their child’

He said such incidents were recurring across the country, warranting effective measures to sort out the perpetrators and discourage them once and for all.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Rana Ansar expressed her sorrow over unending attacks on a tiny and peaceful community in the country, living on the fringes of Quetta.

“We all should try to know that how this community is being attacked day after day, month after month,” she said.

MQM-P’s Jawed Hanif said certain elements were taking benefit of the religious fault lines.

“Religious intolerance is on the rise in our country, which has made such attacks on a community a routine business. This is a national issue and I have no hesitation to say that they are being killed because they belong to the Shia sect.” He said it was hard to conceive that “we are unable to protect these people who live on a tiny stretch of land”.

Women Development Minister Shehla Raza said the National Action Plan was not being implemented effectively and demanded that the unanimously approved plan be implemented fully.

“No area should be left unsearched in the hunt for those who are killing innocent people, their abetters and the authors of such cruel plots,” she said.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Shehzad Qureshi said an international agenda could be behind such incidents.

MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain demanded the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority make TV channels reflect the nation’s mood if any such tragedy happened in the future.

Deputy Speaker Rehana Leghari put the resolution before the house, which was passed unanimously.

Attack in Ormara

Presenting another resolution in the house, PPP’s Sardar Chandio condemned the attack in Ormara in which personnel of law enforcement agencies were offloaded from a bus by “armed terrorists who had camps in Iran” and gunned down.

He demanded the government take measures to punish those involved in the attack.

Jawed Hanif said three militant organisations had formed a nexus in Balochistan which had links with India, Afghanistan and Iran. “Our forces have identified their camps, which are located in Iran.”

He said the Pakistani forces had defeated militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and they would do the same in Balochistan as well.

Grand Democratic Alliance’s Nusrat Sehar Abbasi also demanded that NAP be implemented effectively.

Mr Hussain said certain big powers were surrounding Pakistan through various violent means, but Pakistan’s LEAs had defeated them on all fronts.

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said it was an organised attack in Ormara that also left several questions unanswered.

“The key question is that how these terrorists are planning and executing their plots with impunity. We should also plug the loopholes to effectively counter such elements.”

The resolution was also passed unanimously.

PPP’s Pir Mujeebul Haq moved a resolution in which the attacks in Sri Lanka were condemned and sympathies from the people of Pakistan were extended to the South Asian neighbour. The resolution was also unanimously passed.

Death of infant girl sparks debate

A resolution moved jointly by PPP’s Ghazala Sial and PTI’s Seema Zia on the death of nine-month-old Nashwa brought forth political connotations initially when MQM-P lawmakers said the hospital itself or its owners should not be targeted; and the issue should not spawn a campaign that could make doctors refuse to treat patients in distress.

Seema Zia said the incident in which a baby suffering from gastroenteritis died because of administering of a wrong injection at a private hospital showed how such facilities were being allowed to function.

She said it was the Sindh government which was ultimately responsible to check such facilities.

“How a hospital of such a size is functioning without a licence and the government has allowed it to do business with no questions asked?” she remarked.

She said the Sindh Healthcare Commission should work efficiently, adding that treating a patient wrongly was not short of a heinous crime.

Ms Sial demanded that the provincial government take action against errant hospitals and doctors.

“All such hospitals should be banned and closed,” she said, demanding a detailed inquiry into the incident.

MQM’s Mohammad Hussain said the reporting of the incident should not become a campaign, because it would make doctors refuse to treat people out of fear.

Mr Hanif, also of the MQM, was not pleased with a fellow opposition member, Dr Zia’s assertion that the hospital had no licence to function. He said the hospital was duly registered and condemned “those political elements who were part of a media campaign against the owner [of the hospital] because he had taken part in the [recent] election”.

PPP’s Shamim Mumtaz said it was not acceptable to her to see certain members “supporting the hospital where the child died because of the treatment that caused her death”.

She said: “I know who is pressuring the family and the police. We should support the family that has lost their child and should not see who was the doctor involved and which was the hospital.”

Young woman’s death

PTI’s Saeed Ahmed said a young woman died from a wrong injection at a government hospital in Korangi and a case should be registered against the Sindh government.

Minister Ghani said it was better to look into and address the issue instead of exchanging accusations. He said the bereaved family could not be stopped from protesting against the hospital.

“We should support the family instead of scoring points and should take measures that could stop recurrence of such tragic incidents in the future,” said Mr Ghani.

He said a superintendent of police should also be condemned who discouraged a family from lodging a case instead of supporting them.

Minister Shehla Raza said three employees of the government hospital in Korangi had been detained who were allegedly involved in administering a wrong injection to the woman.

Later, Dr Sohrab Sarki made the first speech of the five-day pre-budget debate before the chair adjourned the session.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Chawla said, while responding to a calling-attention notice by MQM-P’s Kunwar Naveed, that two “mafias” involved in the fake appointments in the police department and criminals involved in two gangs had been apprehended and were being tried in court.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2019