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HYDERABAD, April 29: A requisitioned session of the Hyderabad District Council witnessed pandemonium on Monday after a woman councillor of the PPP Awam Dost Panel (ADP), Farheen Mughal, passed what other council members described “derogatory remarks” against them for supporting Gen Pervez Musharraf in his referendum, which she said was being held unconstitutionally.
The session also witnessed a flurry of slogans being raised against one another. The convener, Nawab Rashid Ali Khan, immediately restored order.
It all began when Farheen Mughal said that for Rs20,000 the Nazimeen had been “bought by the government” and it was “a meeting of sycophants”.
The members, especially M. Ali Gohar, took serious notice of it and they in unison criticized Ms Farheen for using “intemperate language” in the session.
As the woman councillor raised slogans of “Go, Musharraf, go! No, Musharraf, no!”, her rivals reciprocated with “Go, Farheen, go! No, Farheen, no!”.
They opined that when the lady councillor was so concerned about the constitutionality of the presidential referendum then why was she sitting in the District Council, which was also formed under the PCO of President Pervez Musharraf. “Is this not double standards and hypocrisy on the part of the ADP members?” the members pointed out.
The session was called by 37 members, led by Q. Mohammed Hakim, to discuss the one-point agenda of the presidential referendum.
In the session of 146, more than 74 members including those belonging to the ADP attended the session. However, when it held a debate on the resolution and tried to pass it on to the ADP members, they were not there.
The members also came harsh on the bureaucracy and the district government for providing Rs20,000 to each union council as expenses for referendum-related arrangements/rallies in violation of a government notification.
They said that as per government notification, Rs50,000 were to be given to each union council out of a total grant of Rs51 lacs for 102 union councils.
PROTEST DEMO: At least 20 Nazimeen of the city and Latifabad held a protest demonstration before the press club, condemning the attitude of Dr Makhdoom Rafique-uz-Zaman and the district coordination officer (DCO).
Q. Hakim, M. Ali Gohar, Abdul Rauf Jafri, Dr. Abdul Aziz Gadi Pathan, Saif-ur-Rehman, Babu Ramzan Arain, Babu Ilyas, Fayyaz Khan, Majeed Qureshi, and Ahsan Mamoon among others told journalists that while the referendum was only hours away, they did not know what arrangements had been made by the district government and the DCO.
They said neither the DCO nor the district Nazim was available in the office.
They said that the SHOs were asking the Nazimeen of various union councils to make arrangements for feeding 300 people on the day of the polling (i.e. today).
