KARACHI, Aug 17: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) staged a token walkout in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday in protest against the detention of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the opposition leader in the house , and other opposition members in Thar on the eve of the by-election for NA-229 Tharparkar-I.
As the house started its deliberation at 6.15pm, 75 minutes behind the scheduled time, on Tuesday, fateha was offered for the departed souls of those nominated by treasury and opposition benches.
Soon afterwards, Mr Hamidullah of the MMA raised a point of order and accused the government of having mala fide intention in summoning the session at a time when opposition members were busy in election-related matters.
There were only MMA members on the opposition benches due to the absence of those belonging to the main opposition party PPP-P. No doubt, Mr Hameedullah said, a session could be summoned any day, but the way it was called showed mala fide intentions on the part of the government side as there was neither an emergency, nor the issue of vote of confidence or no-confidence at the moment.
He argued that even if the holding of the session was so urgent, the government should have summoned it in the morning. Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Law Minister Chaudhry Iftekhar Ahmed denied MMA's allegations.
Chaudhry Iftekhar maintained that the session had been summoned only when the election campaign had come to an end. He indicated that members of treasury benches had also been attending the session after returning from Thar.
Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, refuting MMA's allegation that opposition members had been detained in Thar with ulterior motives, declared that no one could be allowed to take law into his own hands and create a law and order situation.
He told the house that some members of the opposition, including Sassui Palejo, were detained for moving in the area with armed guards in violation of the Section-144 imposed in Thar.
Even Nisar Ahmed Khuhro defied the ban by taking along armed guards while visiting the area, he added. He maintained that the business of legislators was to take up the issue, if any, on the floor of the house.
Mr Nasrullah Shaji of the MMA, criticizing the opposition members' detention, said it seemed as if Thar had become 'no-go area' for the opposition where leader of the opposition in the house had been detained for four hours only because he was accompanied by the armed guard provided to him by the government itself.
He accused the government of subjecting the opposition members of harassment. The chief minister argued that had the Thar area been made no-go area for the opposition, none of their candidates could have succeeded in filing his nomination papers. In this context, the CM referred to the incident in 1977 where Maulana Jan Mohammad Abbasi was not allowed to file his nomination papers.
Deputy opposition leader in the assembly Maulana Umar Sadiq raised the issue of bomb blasts and the government's alleged failure in arresting culprits of the terrorist activities and assassinations in recent months in Karachi.
The chief minister told the house that the culprits of an attack on the corps commander's convoy had been identified through a mobile phone found attached with a time bomb. Those involved in the assassination bid on Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz had been identified with the help of a TV channel's video film, he added.
The house unanimously adopted two resolutions. One of them condemned the suicide bomb attack to assassinate Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, and the other urged the provincial government to approach the Centre with regard to facilitating the issuance of computerized NICs to all those possessing an old NIC.
A Panel of Chairmen was also named during the session. Those nominated were Mr Muhmmad Hussain, Dr Irfan Gul Magsi, Mr Rajveer Singh and Dr Sikander Mandro. Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah adjourned the session till 9:30am on Wednesday.