KARACHI, Nov 29: Speaker of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday said that he would talk to Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman, deputy opposition leader in the house, about summoning of a meeting of the House Business Committee if the opposition was serious in playing a positive role in ensuring a smooth running of the house business.

The speaker was addressing newsmen in his chamber in the assembly building after adjourning the session on Tuesday.

Defending his role during the proceedings, he said he had allowed opposition members to speak for one hour but the opposition members appeared unwilling to let the treasury benches speak. “They have adopted the new method to create disorder. Ten to 15 members would stand up and start speaking at a time. They would also ignore the chair’s call to sit down,” the speaker observed, adding that they would even pay no heed to the opposition leader’s call to observe discipline.

Referring to a rumpus during Monday proceedings, the speaker said opposition members spoke for an hour but when law minister was given the floor, they refused to let him speak. “Is it a democracy?” he asked. Regarding the attitude of Syed Murad Ali Shah, he quoted the member as saying “whatever I am saying, are the rules” in reply to the chair’s polite advice not to violate the rules.

He said he had passed the ruling barring him from the session for the rest of the proceedings and those on the following days, only when he repeatedly defied his orders to refrain from continuing with his disorderly behaviour.

Citing Makhdoom Jamil’s statement regarding a no-confidence motion, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah said it was their legal right and they had already exercised the same in the past. “If they want to run the assembly through intimidation and were bent upon setting wrong traditions, I will not allow them to succeed. I will not let them hold the house hostage as long as I am the speaker.”

He pointed out that he did have the option to call out the sergeant at arms to remove Murad Ali Shah from the house but this would have created a scene.

He said he had always demonstrated tolerance. In this context, he recalled that in 1985-86, when PPP was in power, the then deputy speaker Mr Bhopali had been pulled from his legs and thrown out of the house.