KARACHI, Oct 24: Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Monday held the home minister, the mines minister and the Speaker responsible for wasting another day of the assembly without carrying on any business.

Mr Khuhro, who was speaking at a press conference in his chamber soon after the House was adjourned for Tuesday, pointed out that the home minister was aware of the agenda and he knew that the performance of his department would come under fire, so he made an attempt to escape from accountability for making a wrong statement on the floor of the House by terming kidnapping of Ram Lal Maheshwari a matter of financial deal which, according to the minister, had forced him to go into hiding.

He said because of this irresponsible statement, M Maheshwari was killed. When his body was recovered from a ditch, his six fingers were found chopped off just to remove six golden rings with precious stones.

Despite the fact that he was kidnapped on Oct 9, FIR could not be registered before Oct 17 or 18. As the minister was to submit a reply for his irresponsible statement which resulted in the killing of a minority member, he avoided the session.

“Mukesh Kumar wanted to raise the issue of murder of Maheshwari through a point of order and there was no disorder, nor there was any slogan-raising in the House, and even then the Speaker adjourned the session as if he had come with the same intention,” Mr Khuhro said and asked the Speaker to bear the expenses of the lost day.

He said Irfanullah Marwat was equally responsible for adjournment of the motion.

“In the absence of chief minister, it is the law minister who conducts the proceedings and Irfanullah Marwat is not the law minister to move the motion for relaxation of rule for suspension of the business on the order of the day but the law minister despite his presence in the House avoided it,” he pointed out and stated that under the rule 211, he could reject the move as rule 41 clearly stipulates that the first hour of every sitting after recitation of Holy Quran shall be available for answering questions.

Referring to education minister’s criticism on the opposition over Sindhi language bill, the leader of the opposition said if one goes through the three notifications issued on Sept 27, Oct 14 and Oct 20 and the statement of the chief minister expressing ignorance about Sept 27 notification, it reflects the incompetency of the government where the chief executive was being bypassed by the secretary and the education minister and the Governor’s directives were being followed.

This situation was not prevailing in one department only, but the same situation persists in every field. There is lawlessness, six persons were kidnapped and later murdered in Chirper, condemned prisoners escaped from a hospital, there was rising unemployment, insecurity in rural and urban areas, and prices were increasing while the government was avoiding discussion on water issue by hiding AGN Abbasi’s report, and the finance minister, Sardar Ahmad, had been transferred from the finance department for forcefully pursuing the Sindh case in the NFC.

Murad Ali Shah speaking on this occasion stated that the speaker had lost respect of the House as he had failed to exercise his powers to protect the minorities.

Mukesh Kumar said that he had submitted a privileged motion with the assembly secretariat against the home minister who had breached the privilege of the house by making wrong statement on the floor of the House which resulted in the murder of the minority member by his kidnappers.