Muttahida lawmaker slams ‘unfair’ supply of water to Sukkur
Karachi
A vociferous protest by the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the provincial assembly on Friday against “unfair” supply of water to Sukkur compelled the chief minister to end his speech on the city’s development halfway.
MQM lawmaker Diwan Chand Chawla, through his call-attention notice, pointed out that the provincial government was ignoring Sukkur. He added there was a water shortage crisis in the city because the government had deliberately curtailed its supply.
In his remarks on the issue, the chief minister, while referring to the MQM, said these people had done nothing for Sukkur, whereas his government was striving hard for its development. He added that a water supply project costing Rs900 million was being carried out in Sukkur with the assistance of Asian Development Bank.
Chawla and other MQM lawmakers were irked by the chief minister’s remarks that the MQM had done nothing for Sukkur and started shouting slogans against the provincial government.
They were further outraged when the chief minister asked speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani to refrain the MQM lawmakers from “acting” in the House.
The MQM lawmakers’ dramatic protest forced the chief minister to stop his speech halfway.
Both the speaker and the chief minister criticised the opposition legislators for their attitude.
Parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the treasury lawmakers too could adopt a similar hostile attitude in the House but they would not do so.
He added that the opposition lawmakers should listen to the speech of the leader of the House.
As Chawla kept on speaking on the issue of Sukkur’s water supply, the speaker ordered expunging all his remarks from record of the House’s proceedings.
Earlier, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro said that the provision of water supply to Sukkur came under the purview of the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) as it worked under the planning and development department.
Finance minister Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the additional portfolio of the planning and development department, said the NSUSC did not fall under the provincial government’s domain as it was a private organisation. To this, Chawla raised the question as to who would respond to the Sukkur’s water supply issue.
Killing of children in Orangi
Speaking on a point of order, MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, the leader of the opposition in the assembly, regretted that recently three children were ruthlessly murdered in Orangi Town and the quarters concerned remained completely indifferent to the issue.
He added that neither the civil society staged any protest, not the government had had shown any extraordinary response to the case.
Hassan said if such an incident had occurred in a developed country, the head of the state would have personally taken notice of it and met with the aggrieved family.
The opposition leader also said one of the weapons used in the recent killing of policemen in Orangi Town was similar to the one used in an attack on MQM MPA Saifuddin Khalid.
Friday’s session was again held at the old assembly hall as the speaker said he had decided that at least one sitting of each session of the house should be held there to maintain its functional status.
It was decided that next week, three days of the current session - from Monday to Wednesday - would be entirely reserved for a pre-budget debate and no other business would be taken up.
Performance report
The speaker informed the House that he had been compiling a report on the performance of lawmakers on the directives of Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
He said this while taking notice of the absence of most of the lawmakers in the House.
The speaker drew the attention of the parliamentary affairs minister towards the situation.
Durrani said that he would not just send his report on the performance of the lawmakers to the PPP chairman but to the leaders of other political parties having representation in the House too if required.
Of the 168 members of the assembly, only 27 were present when the assembly’s proceedings started on Friday.
Two bills adopted
The assembly unanimously adopted two bills - the Sindh Companies Profits’ (Worker’s Participation) Bill, 2015 and the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University of Technology and Skill Development Bill, 2016.
The companies profits’ (worker’s participation) bill was adopted in the light of a report on the proposed legislation submitted by the provincial assembly’s standing committee on labour and human resources.
The bill was prepared as the subject of labour has been devolved from the Centre to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The proposed legislation envisages establishing a board of trustees comprising representatives of both workers and managements for the sake of participation of workers in the profits of companies.
The Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University of Technology and Skill Development bill was adopted as part of supplementary agenda for the day.
The proposed university will be set up in Khairpur Mirs.