An understanding between the treasury and opposition benches reached on Wednesday during a meeting of the house committee regarding starting the proceedings latest by 10.15am did not work as the day’s deliberations began late, after 11.20am.
On the order of the day, there was a lofty business as Thursday was declared by the speaker as private members’ day in lieu of a day due from the previous session. However, except the questions hour, no other business could be taken up as almost 50 minutes were consumed in raising points of order.
During the question hour, and also while members were speaking on points of order, a number of MPAs repeatedly stood up and disrupted the proceedings, making it difficult for the chair to conduct the deliberations in an orderly manner.
After the questions hour, Ms Nuzhat Pathan, through a point of order, drew the chair’s attention to the departure of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Mohammad Ali Shah to Spain at a time when his services were urgently required here in the country.
Opposition’s Mukesh Kumar’s point of order was about dismantling of a temple. Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed assured the house that no one would be allowed to dismantle a temple and raise a multi-storey building in its place.
Mr Kumar, President of the Karachi Hindu Panchayat, had informed the house that some elements in collusion with the concerned authorities, intended to dismantle a temple in Soldier Bazaar to raise a residential complex.
In reply to a point of order raised by MMA’s Hameedullah Khan, Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat said there was no such policy under which the provincial government could stop people from other provinces from coming to Sindh.
He said it was a constitutional right of every citizen to live anywhere in the country.
He maintained that people from the quake-hit areas were coming here and receiving treatment at various government and private hospitals and they could not be denied movement.
Rafique Engineer of the PPP drew the attention of the house to the water scarcity in Lyari, saying that no water had been supplied to certain areas of Lyari for the last one month. He said that Lyari was already getting only 13 million gallons per day (mgd) against its actual requirement of 30mgd, but despite the short supply, the released water was being diverted to some other areas.
The chair gave floor to Shama Mithani of the PPP and asked her to raise her point of order but she abdicated her right in favour of the Leader of the Opposition, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who wanted to move a substantive motion under Rule 179 and sought relaxation in the relevant rules for the purpose. Before Mr Khuhro could get the floor, the house was adjourned for Zuhr prayers.
When the house resumed proceedings at around 1.50pm, Mr Khuhro sought the chair’s permission to move his motion but Law Minister Iftikhar Chaudhry insisted that he should move the motion after seeking relaxation in Rule 211.
Syed Murad Ali Shah of PPP asked the chair to exercise his discretionary powers under Rule 179 and allow Mr Khuhro to move his motion.
Ms Shahzia Marri of PPP cited the chair’s advice he gave during the question hour to raise issues through resolutions or motions.
“The substantive motion which we want to move is not meant to score points but for the betterment of every one. If this resolution is moved by the treasury benches, we will have no objection,” she said.
Responding to Ms Marri’s contention, the chair admitted that the advice had been given but told the member to move the motion by seeking permission under Rule 211.
When Mr Marwat rose from his seat to insisted that Mr Khuhro must seek relaxation under Rule 211 and not under Rule 179, many opposition members started speaking at a time creating a chaotic situation.
The minister was heard saying that if the opposition benches continued to disturb him, the treasury would also not let the opposition leader speak. He accused the opposition of sabotaging the private members’ day as it appeared more interested in raising point of order rather than taking up business laid down on the agenda.
The chair called it a day when members did not heed its call for moving a motion to extend the time. The house will meet again at 9am on Friday.