Ruckus in Sindh PA over offensive remarks

KARACHI: The proceedings of Sindh Assembly were once again severely marred for the second consecutive day on Tuesday following offensive remarks against Chairman of Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari by an opposition legislator causing furore.

The house was holding a discussion on the spendingof provincial government’s budget during the past three quarters of the financial year and the upcoming budget for the next fiscal year 2019-20. For the last two consecutive days, offensive remarks by opposition legislators of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against PPP chairman had caused ruckus in the house interrupting the house business. Again on Wednesday, it was the turn of PTI’s MPA Saeed Afridi whose offensive remarks against the PPP chairman set off proverbial fireworks in the house. There was rumpus and chaos in the house with heated exchanges between the legislators on both sides of the aisle. Strained nerves and agitated sentiments brought the PPP’s legislator Mumtaz Jakhrani and PTI’s MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh to the verge of a physical fight. Earlier, an interesting situation was witnessed when a PTI legislator came to the session wearing a helmet. The PTI MPA Jamal Siddiqui said he was using the helmet for safety against any attack from the treasury benches. On Tuesday, a PPP lawmaker had hurled her headphone towards the opposition benches during the brawl. Amid rumpus in the house, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session till 1 pm Thursday (today).

Earlier, taking part in the discussion on the provincial budget, opposition MPA of MQM Rasjid Khilji said the provincial government should show mercy on people of the urban parts of Sindh as in the last 10 years several development schemes could not be completed despite spending billions of rupees. PPP’s MPA Shamim Mumtaz said the People's Party had never differentiated between the urban and rural parts of Sindh. She said the federal government has denied Rs200 billion to Sindh from the federal divisible pool, which was tantamount to terrorism against the province. She said the massive price-hike and inflation has been caused due to ill-advised economic policies of the federal government causing severe hardships to the masses. PTI legislator Jamal Siddiqui said the Sindh government has failed to provide water to Karachi. Similarly, he said the people of Tharparkar are without potable water despite spending millions of rupees on reverse-osmosis plants.

MQM MPA Waseemuddin Qureshi said the people of a number of localities in Karachi are only getting water because of the filling of Hub Dam after the recent heavy rains in its catchment areas. He said the massive scale of cheating in the intermediate examinations exposes the state of government education in the province. PPP’s MPA Heer Soho said in district Sujawal in Sindh, numerous schools are lying closed due to serious shortage of teachers.