KARACHI, Jan 20: The requisitioned session of the Sindh Assembly was prorogued without doing any business after 15 minutes of pandemonium in the house.

Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana was conducting the house when uproar began.

Neither side was serious about discussion on Kalabagh Dam what had been termed as an issue of life and death for people of Sindh. The opposition had apparently not done its homework and had perhaps lost will to fight it out after Gen Pervez Musharraf’s speech in which he announced NFC award and the decision to build all the dams, including the Kalabagh Dam, by 2016.

The treasury was playing with rules due to numerical superiority to make the opposition look like an irresponsible and unconcerned bunch, interested only in rhetorics.

The treasury was contended with the self-praise for what it considered as resolution of the water issue according to aspirations of the people of the province through bold decisions of General Pervez Musharraf, and indulgence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s chief Altaf Hussain, the opposition called it a bluff and betrayal of Sindh.

After recitation from the Holy Quran and Na’at, MPAs from either side jumped in their seat to speak on points of order. Hardly any thing could be comprehended and the deputy speaker was unable to control the house.

As the chair was not prepared to recognise the deputy opposition leader Makhdoom Jameeluzzaman and his other colleagues, including Sassui Paeljo, it infuriated the opposition because at the same time provincial minister Irafullah Marwat’s mike was open, and from top of his voice he kept on accusing the opposition of dragging its feet for the debate.

For a moment it appeared as if he was dictating terms to the deputy speaker when he was heard asking the deputy speaker to prorogue the house if the opposition did not comply with her ruling.

It later transpired that his tactic was to trap the opposition which succeeded. It was obvious that the opposition had not done its homework despite the fact it had requisitioned the session and in the meantime technical committee’s report had been published. Its attitude was callous and irresponsible as many of its frontline senior leaders were absent.

Since the opposition had requisitioned the session many times in the past on the same issue, it was expected to be well-prepared despite government’s evading tactics.

When someone from the opposition benches questioned that when its MPAs were not allowed to speak on a point of order, on whose orders Mr Marwat’s mike was opened and why was he allowed to “shout” in the house. At that point Rahila Tiwana, who was insisting earlier against allowing point of order to any member recognized Arshad Shah of the MQM who paid tributes to MQM founder Altaf for adopting a principled stance on Kalabagh Dam that compelled the government to stop KBD’s construction and ultimately saved the country. The MQM member said that Kalabagh Dam was the long-standing issue of Sindh and Mr Hussain had declared that he would not compromise on interests of Sindh.

He claimed that it was because of Mr Hussain’s principled stand, the construction of Kalabagh Dam was postponed and the country was steered of crisis.

Following his remarks, Makhdoom Jamil claimed that Pervez Musharraf did not announce to abandon the KBD project. Instead he announced that the KBD would be constructed after Bhasha and Munda dams.

He said General Musharraf’s announcement to construct KBD amounted to humiliate and mislead the people of smaller provinces’ unanimous approach. Makhdoom Jameel said the issue of KBD was not over and options were still open, adding NFC Award was yet another issue facing the province.

He said that the timing of the session may be extended as MQM may be speaking on the KBD. Makhdoom Jamil also criticized the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, saying Altaf Hussain was “telling lies” and cheating people of Sindh on KBD issue.

His remarks infuriated Muttahida MPAs and they started shouting and accusing PPP, on which deputy speaker tried to bring the house in order and announced start of questions.

During the shouting bout, deputy speaker on several occasions warned the deputy opposition leader Makhdoom Jameeluz Zaman to maintain order and if she was not shown respect, she would prorogue the session.

Provincial minister Irafnullah Marwat alleged that on the one hand the opposition failed to complete the quorum till 11.15am, which the treasury had completed and now they were ignoring the ruling of the chair.”

“We are not running from the debate. The opposition should have come on time. The timing of the session was 9am to 12 noon, but the opposition failed to complete the quorum till 11.15am, and now they are asking for an extension in time, he said.

Sindh Law Minister Chaudhary Iftikhar Ahmed pointed out that on Thursday when the session began, Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah invited the opposition to start debate on the important issue of Kalabagh Dam for which the session was requisitioned.

But the opposition members said that Question Hour was important and now they were raising point of order. The opposition should fix its priority, added the law minister.

Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana, witnessing the bickering, prorogued the house at 11.30am, saying that the opposition was not serious in running the session.

Soon after the ruling, the opposition started chanting slogans and members belonging to the PPP and the MMA staged a sit-in on the stairs of the Sindh Assembly, chanting slogans against the regime, Gen Pervez Musharraf and the MQM leadership for deceiving people of Sindh, besides rejecting the Kalabagh Dam and the NFC award.