the leader of the opposition on April 29, and the parliamentary leaders of the other two parties. The speaker said as he had called for the commencement of the Question-Hour of the day’s sitting as per the regular agenda for the day, he could not allow moving any other item on an out-of-turn basis.
The speaker repeatedly advised the opposition lawmakers to first let him go through the regular agenda.As the opposition lawmakers were taking up the matter, only PML-F MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi’s microphone was switched on as the first three queries in the Question-Hour were related to the health department and she was supposed to raise them.
The opposition lawmakers urged the Speaker to put aside the regular agenda for the time being to allow them to table the resolution keeping in view the urgency and sensitivity of the matter.
When the Speaker seemed unmoved by the passionate appeals of opposition lawmakers, Abbasi requested him to give a ruling that the opposition’s joint resolution would be taken up after the conclusion of the Question-Hour. However, the Speaker refused to make this commitment.The speaker said he would continue running the House as per the rules of procedures and the opposition lawmakers were unnecessarily protesting.
Later, the lawmakers of the three parties stormed out of the House and continued boycotting the proceedings till they ended.The draft of the resolution the three parties wanted to move reads: “We would like to condemn the remarks passed by Mr Altaf Hussain, the leader of the MQM, which are nothing but a call for instigation of violence and terror among the masses. Negative propaganda being created against our national institutions especially the Pakistan Army is strongly rejected. The demand for new province by dividing the province of Sindh coming from an individual who has been away from Pakistan since more than a decade and is a dual national is also rejected as nothing but a call for national disintegration. We request for strong legal action by the provincial as well as the federal government.”