KARACHI: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Wednesday demanded an apology from Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for delivering an ‘anti-state speech’ and warned him that the party’s protest campaign against the recently passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021 would continue.

PTI lawmakers Khurrum Sher Zaman, Bilal Ghaffar, Jamal Siddiqui, Dr Imran Ali Shah, Raja Azhar, Shehzad Qureshi and Dr Seema Zia submitted a resolution in the office of the secretary of the Sindh Assembly accusing the CM of humiliating opposition members in his recent speech in the assembly.

Party files a resolution to discuss CM’s diatribe in PA

On Dec 11, CM Shah while speaking on the floor of the Sindh Assembly had lashed out at the opposition for ‘trying’ to create a rural-urban ethnic divide and said: “Do you want people from Islamabad to occupy Sindh? The people of Sindh will never allow such an occupation. Yes, we are part of Pakistan and we should be considered a part of Pakistan. Don’t create a situation that people start to think about something different. You are in minority and will remain in minority and can never take decisions.”

The resolution described CM Shah’s speech in the house as a biased statement.

In the resolution, the members took the stand that the CM had made a speech in the assembly against the state of Pakistan. The CM used the phrase to ‘throw the members out of the House’ and the PTI asked him to withdraw his hate speech and apologise on his biased and hateful statement.

Later, talking to journalists after filing the resolution, Mr Sher Zaman said that the PPP government in the province was following a dictatorial policy.

“The PPP is in power in Sindh for the past over 13 years,” he said. “It is their responsibility to take the opposition in confidence. The Sindh government should have talked to the opposition before introducing any law. The Sindh government has provoked the opposition to protest.”

He said that there had never been such protests in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. “The bill proposed by the PPP has been rejected by all stakeholders. Not only us, but PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] people have also declared it a black law.”

Bilal Ghaffar, the parliamentary party leader of the PTI in the Sindh Assembly, said that the chief minister had not learnt to lead the House and always acted like an immature party activist.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2021