The house reassembled at 10:50am with recitation from the Holy Quran and Naat. Mohammad Hussain, a member of the Panel of Chairmen who was chairing the session, observed: “The house is not in order, therefore, the session stands adjourned till 9:30am on Monday.”
Apparently, the chair’s remarks referred to the presence of the four PPP legislators -- Syed Murad Ali Shah, Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, Nawaz Ali Chandio and Salim Hingoro – who were supposed to stay away from the house proceedings as per the ruling announced on Thursday by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah. They were suspended for two days for beating up an MPA within the house premises on Wednesday.
The opposition benches appeared unprepared for such an abrupt adjournment and before they could comprehend the situation or record their protest, Mohammad Hussain had left the house.
As today was the last day for the general discussion on the budget 2006-07, the adjournment also left the debate inconclusive. The house was supposed to wind up the debate on Friday and Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad, who had presented the budget, was to explain the points raised by various members during the debate held during the last four days.
On Monday, there would be a one-hour discussion on the expenditure charged upon the provincial consolidation fund, followed by a discussion on demands for grants for supplementary budget estimates for the year 2005-06.
The assembly secretariat had received a record number, more than 500, of cut motions from opposition members.
According to the schedule, voting would be held for approval or otherwise of the new budget on Tuesday whereas the finance bill would be taken up on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, four Sindh ministers have criticised the opposition benches for defying the ruling announced by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah with regard to the suspension of four PPP MPAs, along with a PML MPA, and stressed that the opposition should have accepted the ruling gracefully.
Addressing a press conference on Friday after the day’s proceedings of the Sindh assembly were adjourned, they noted that the four suspended MPAs turned up at the proceedings in violation of the ruling, which, according to the minister, was in accordance with the Rules of Business and aimed at raising the dignity of the house, as well as preventing recurrence of ugly incidents in future.
The ministers, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed and Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari, maintained that the action taken by the speaker was fair.Syed Sardar Ahmad said that it would give a bad impression to people that those who were supposed to make laws would themselves indulge in violation of laws and rules.
Mr Marwat pointed out that the treasury benches had welcomed the stern action taken against their own member because they believed that guilty should be punished without considering his affiliation. He said the opposition should demonstrate tolerance.
Chaudhry Iftikhar said that the speaker’s attitude towards opposition members had always been lenient and he was allocating more time to them than others. He recalled that the speaker had not taken action against those who had tried burnt copies of budget and tried to humiliate Syed Sardar Ahmed last year. He alleged that the opposition had resorted to make the incident an issue because the new budget did not provide them any point on which they could agitate.
Sardar Leghari noted that the opposition, by rejecting the speaker’s ruling, had lost the opportunity to take part in the general discussion on the budget.