KARACHI, June 21: The combined opposition was up on its feet again on Saturday protesting against the alleged remarks of the Punjab irrigation minister, calling opponents of the Thal canal project as Indian agent.

The Punjab minister has since clarified the remarks attributed to him but members of the Sindh Assembly were adamant on their stand. The opposition also took up the issue of protest by students of Sindh Medical College.

An uproar followed when the opposition made unsuccessful attempts to press for taking up its privilege motions against the minister, Aamir Sultan Cheema, and the students’ issue.

Leader of the opposition, Nisar Khuhro, in his privilege motion which was in continuation of a similar motion filed on Friday, submitted that Mr Cheema, had stated in his statment that he had used the words ‘Hindu agent’ only for him (Mr Khuhro) persuading the people to come on the streets.

Taking exception to the remarks, Mr Khuhro had contended in his motion that such a defamatory statement not only cast aspersion on him but on the entire provincial assembly. Not only the PPP Parliamentarians vehemently oppose the construction of greater Thal canal but the legislators from Muttahida Qaumi Movement, SDA, PML-Q, and the MMA also are opposed to the project, the motion maintained.

However, the speaker allowed Dr Sohrab Sarki to raise the issue of protest by SMC students whose enrolments had been rescinded for getting admission allegedly on fake documents.

Responding to a point of order, education minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat said that in the past, a committee was formed to examine the matter. He said that it was found that all documents were fake and in most cases the students did not have domicile.

Mr Sarki contended that the matter should have been examined on case to case basis. He referred to a reported statement by chief minister restoring the admissions. “Why this matter was not taken up five years earlier and why the staff responsible for a such acts was not penalized?” he asked.

Mr Marwat replied: “Action is taken only when wrongdoings are detected.”

Dr Saeeda Malik clarified that the chief minister, who was sitting in the assembly, had only stated that he would review the matter on case to case basis and that the statment attributed to him was incorrect.

When Mr Khuhro claimed that the minister was making a misleading statement, Mr Marwat said that the opposition was only interested in point scoring and not addressing the problems of the people.

In order to put the minister on the defensive, Mr Khuhro pointed out that not a single reply to 56 questions pertaining to education department had been provided for today’s question hour.

Mr Marwat put the onus on the district governments which, he argued, provided the replies very late, on Friday evening, and had subsequently been appended.

The speaker wanted to know about the action taken against the district governments. Mr Marwat sought to move a motion against those running the local governments. The speaker took serious view of the contention reminding him that respect to the assembly must be shown. He warned that if this happened in future, privilege of the assembly would be invoked.

Mr Khuhro referred to question 141 which, he said, had nothing to do with the district governments. He said that the minister had given a wrong statment.

DEBATE: Amid noise, the speaker allowed Mohammad Hussain to move a motion for suspending the question hour in order to resume the general debate on budget.

When the floor was given to Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah of PPP-Patriot, the opposition members kept on raising slogans against him for his changing loyalty, and walked out of the house. Manzoor Shah was inaudible amid the slogans.

Ali Bux Shah of PML-Q termed the budget ‘progressive’ as no new taxes had been imposed. He called for more allocations for education sector and suggested that there should be an educational complex in each district for youngsters. Boarding facilities should also be made available there and scholarships be given to the deserving students.

Excise and taxation minister Rauf Siddiqui suggested that steps should be taken to provide maximum relief to the people. He proposed that the scope of relief in property tax be expanded so that more and more people could get the benefit.

When Dr Hamida Khuhro of PML-Q was asked to express her views on the budget, deputy speaker Raheela Tiwana, who was in the chair, adjourned the session for 15 minutes for prayers.