KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly session on Wed­nesday was abruptly adjo­urned in the middle of Question Hour due to lack of quorum.

Forty-two, out of total 168, members have to be present in the house to meet the requirement of quorum.

Speaker Siraj Durrani had to briefly adjourn the session when Karim Bux Gabol of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf pointed out quorum. Later, he adjourned the sitting to Thursday.

Before the business was taken up, Grand Democratic Alliance’s Shaharyar Mahar said on a point of order that the law and order conditions in Shikarpur district were extremely poor as at least 40 people had been killed there in the past two months.

“At least 40 people have been killed in Shikarpur district in the past two months while 24 of them [were] murdered last month,” he said.

Besides, he added, a number of people had been kidnapped for ransom in the district, where the hometown of the assembly speaker is also located.

He said so far no person involved in the killing of a deputy superintendent of police in the district had been arrested.

“The Sindh government should take up this issue on serious grounds because it could get worse if no action was taken against those responsible for turning the district into a hell,” he warned.

He claimed that influential elements were collecting extortion in parts of the region by threatening vulnerable Hindu community.

He said despite the fact that government had promulgated the Police Order of its own choosing and framed rules, yet no SP had been appointed in Shikarpur district. People should be informed what the issue behind not appointing a SP there was, he demanded.

He demanded a fully fledged debate on the law and order problems in Shikarpur.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla conceded the issue raised by the GDA lawmaker was genuinely disturbing and the Sindh government had taken notice of it.

“The Sindh government has taken notice of this issue on which I will inform the house in detail tomorrow,” said Minister Chawla.

He claimed the security situation was expected to improve in the next 48 hours.

Speaker Durrani also agreed with Mr Mahar that law and order situation in Shikarpur was poor.

He added an adjournment motion to discuss law and order situation in the province was already with him on which a detailed debate would be carried out.

100 new buses in Karachi by October, PA told

Transport and Mass Transit Minister Syed Awais Qadir Shah on Wednesday informed the house that the provincial government had made serious efforts to resolve the public transport issue in the city, which would be provided new buses shortly.

He was furnishing a statement and replies to a written question asked by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal lawmaker Abdur Rasheed during Question Hour.

Mr Rasheed sought the details of district-wise number of vacancies filled in the transport and mass transit department during the financial year 2018-19 up to Dec 18.

The minister replied that no appointments were made in the transport department during the period. He further said that actually no appointments were made in the department since 2012.

To a supplementary question by Nusrat Saher Abbasi of the opposition GDA, he said that the provincial government was making all-out effort to resolve the issue of public transport in the city.

Ms Abbasi reminded the transport minister that he had in a press statement promised that new buses would soon be provided in the city and asked how long it would take to fulfil his promise.

She asked the minister if he was sure that he would remain transport minister in the coming days and would not be replaced.

On her monologue, the speaker reminded her that she was only allowed to ask supplementary question during Question Hour under the assembly rules and she was not supposed to make personal comments.

“Please ask the supplementary question instead of making a speech every time,” the speaker snapped.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2019