that time, speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani allowed several PPP and MQM MPAs to deliver lengthy speeches on a resolution tabled in connection with the upcoming international women’s day.
Curiously enough, all the PML-F lawmakers had left the house en-masse well before the new MPA was administered oath, giving an impression as if they had boycotted the proceedings.
During the speeches, senior education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro drew the attention of chair to the en-masse departure of the PML-F MPAs and expressing his surprise that they did not stay to express their views on the important subject of the women’s day.
The speaker used the occasion to express his dismay in the house over the criticism of certain opposition lawmakers over his and the deputy speaker’s conduct while chairing the assembly sessions.
Durrani advised these lawmakers to table a motion of no-confidence against him if they believed that he not presiding over the session appropriately.
He regretted that a former chief minister who was now an opposition MPA had filed a petition in the high court that the speaker should provide MPAs with security on the day of the Senate elections. He added that the election commission had complete authority to conduct the Senate polls without any interference from the speaker.
Encroachments
Earlier, information and local government minister Sharjeel Inam Memon informed the House that encroachments in Karachi were growing like a cancer but the provincial government was determined to deal with the issue.
He was responding to a call-attention notice by MQM lawmaker Irum Azeem Farooque about the encroachments in and around the Civil Hospital Karachi that were obstructing the movement of ambulances.
Memon said the issue was not just limited to the surroundings of Civil hospital and encroachments were increasing in all parts of the city, even on storm-water drains.
The minister said certain unscrupulous businessmen had expanded their activities to public land and spaces including roadside, islands, green belts and footpaths in Karachi. He added that the law-enforcement agencies were participating in the administration’s drive against these activities.
Resolutions
The provincial assembly unanimously adopted three resolutions. The first one was jointly moved by MPA Irum Khalid and other lawmakers paying tribute – in connection with the international women’s day on March 8 - to the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto and all women of the world who had challenged discriminatory practices against the fairer sex.
The resolution was moved on behalf of Sindh women’s parliamentary caucus.
The second resolution, which was unanimously adopted, was moved by treasury lawmaker Dr Abdul Sattar Rajpar and other lawmakers paying tribute to the anti-one unit movement by the province’s students and condemning the brutal police action on a peaceful procession of protesting students on March 4, 1967 in Hyderabad.
The third resolution, which too was unanimously passed, was moved by treasury lawmaker Muhammad Sajid Jokhio against the illegal allotment of land by the Malir Development Authority in the suburban areas of the city.
The resolution read: “This assembly resolves and recommends to the government to stop the Malir Development Authority from allotting the lands of local inhabitants to business enterprises and destroying ancient villages, graveyards and historic places.”
Anti-corruption establishment
Earlier during a question hour, anti-corruption and prisons minister Manzoor Hussain Wassan informed the House that provincial government aimed at making the provincial anti-corruption establishment fully empowered and autonomous through a new legislation on the lines of the National Accountability Bureau.