KARACHI, Aug 8: The Awam Dost Panel, Al-Khadim group, Gharib Nawaz and Jamhoori panel boycotted the city council session on Thursday and held a separate assembly, while the Al-Khidmat and affiliated groups continued with its proceedings.
In continuation of their previous day’s protests against City Government’s siding with the Indus Pharma which wanted to get a secondary school-building in Siddique Goth, Shah Faisal Town, vacated, members of these groups preferred staying away from the house, while Ghulam Abbas Talpur and Mehrunnissa Baloch entered the house to point out that the House lacked the required quorum.
Convener ignored their call by saying that this was an adjourned session which does not require the needed quorum. This enraged the members who accused him of having a biased attitude and decided to hold a separate session in the committee room of the building.
The group during the whole proceedings accused the Naib Nazim of siding with the Al-Khidmat Group. Saeed Ghani said that by stopping him from making a speech, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan had demonstrated a biased attitude.
Mehrunnissa Baloch alleged that the Nazim was following the agenda of Jamaat-i-Islami and wanted to get hold of the land where a school had been built in 1961, whereas Siddique Rathore said that the session for agenda no. 15 was from Aug 6 to 10, therefore, this cannot be an adjourned session.
Meanwhile, inside the house attendance was thin and members continued debate on report presented by the primary school committee and another report by district coordination and human resource committee was also read.
The House also approved two resolutions — one announcing the names of a committee to conduct an inquiry regarding Siddique Goth secondary school. The committee members are Saeed Ghani, Gohar Islam, Zulfiqar Ali and Shahnaz Akhter.
Another resolution called for formation and implementation of prescribed format for working of various house committees.
Nevertheless, the Naib Nazim ruled out any chances of a clash or vandalism by members of the house.
He, however, said if required sergeant-at-arms can be called to control the situation and any session out-side the Council Hall was illegal which had no official value.—PPI