KARACHI: Proceedings in the Sindh Assembly on Monday were marred by opposition parties’ strong protests over the worsening law and order situation across the province forcing the chair to abruptly put off the session with most of the business on agenda unfulfilled.

The situation took an ugly turn during Question Hour when Leader of the Opposition Haleem Adil Shaikh, who was allowed by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to ask a supplementary question, insisted to discuss the killing of six people in Shaheed Benazirabad and overall security situation in the province.

The speaker became visibly irked as the opposition members belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan left their seats and gathered in front of the rostrum carrying placards and chanting slogans.

“You are not allowed to make speeches during Question Hour,” Speaker Durrani told the opposition leader angrily before he switched off his microphone prompting a stronger protest by the opposition lawmakers.

Speaker Durrani adjourns the sitting without completing agenda items

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla rose to say that the opposition members were doing politics on the issue by portraying the incident wrongly. “They just want to waste the time of the house,” he remarked.

“If you don’t want the house to be run, I will adjourn it,” the speaker said before putting off the session till Tuesday morning.

At the outset, PTI’s parliamentary party leader Khurram Sher Zaman asked Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuhu as to why the injured people of the incident of Benazirabad were not shifted to hospital timely. The health minister, however, evaded the query and said that the supplementary question of the opposition member was irrelevant as the written question on the agenda pertained to a free ambulance service from Tharparker to Karachi.

“This question is not related to Nawabshah [Shaeed Benazirabad], but yes there is a proper ambulance service in Nawabshah too,” she added.

Opposition Leader Sheikh also asked why the victims were not shifted to the nearest hospital timely if there was a proper ambulance service in Shaheed Benazirabad.

“The bodies kept lying on road for hours and the SHO died of excessive bleeding,” he said about an incident in Qazi Ahmed in which an SHO and five Bhand tribesmen were shot dead and 10 others were injured in an attack carried out by rivals over an agriculture land dispute.

Action against TV channel condemned

Earlier, during the proceedings, Energy Minister Imtias Ahmed Shaikh condemned private news channel News One’s off airing by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

Responding to a journalists’ protest on the matter in the press gallery, he said that Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also condemned the act.

“The federal government wants to ‘oppress’ freedom of expression,” he said, adding that the provincial government stood by the journalist fraternity and would move a resolution to condemn the action against the TV channel.

GDA, MQM-P, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan also expressed reservations on the Pemra’s action against the private news channel and demanded its restoration.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters after the session, opposition leader Sheikh said that the Bhand community was on protest while keeping the corpses of killed people on National Highway but the provincial government did not pay any heed to their protest because they wanted to protect Ali Hassan Zardari.

He said that two innocent girls were abducted and molested by influential persons belonging to PPP, while Nimarta Kumari, Nousheen Shah and other female students were “murdered in university hostels”.

“The Sindh government has failed to protect citizens, establishing writ of law and dispensation of justice to victims of violence and their families,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022