Warning the lawmakers that unruly scenes witnessed in the Sindh Assembly just a day before the Senate elections would not be tolerated again, Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani has said that the ugly scenes in the assembly hall gave him the impression as if a film was being shot there.
Chairing the session of the Sindh Assembly on Friday, the speaker said that he had been a member of the House since past 30 years but never before he had witnessed such a chaos that was observed during the last sitting of the assembly on Tuesday, March 2.
The speaker warned the lawmakers who caused the pandemonium in the House that next time he would not let anyone violate the sanctity of the legislature. He lamented that certain legislators had also used their mobile phones to film the violent scenes during the assembly session against the law.
He also expressed his disappointment at certain legislators threatening the assembly staff during the chaos in the House. “If anyone wants to hurl threats, he should better threaten me,” said the speaker. “Enough has been done as now action will take place,” he said.
Durrani remarked that the security guards who had been deputed to secure the lives of the legislators had been threatened. “These poor security guards are like no one to receive such threats. Please beware that I will lodge a case against you if someone again threaten the security guards,” the speaker warned the MPAs.
“This is not the right way to do things. In case someone is so much fond of hurling threats, I will come out [of the House] alone to receive the threat,” said the visibly exasperated speaker.
Opposition legislator of Grand Democratic Alliance Arif Mustafa Khan Jatoi said he fully endorsed the stance of the speaker.
Meanwhile, the PA unanimously passed a resolution of Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahoo to grant a waiver for repaying agricultural loans due to the financial losses of the farmers in the province.
The resolution was tabled in the house on last Tuesday but discussion on it remained inconclusive as proceedings of the House turned violent a day before the crucial Senate elections. The agriculture minister said that the provincial government had been doing its best to extend maximum economic benefits to the farmers and that was why the support price of wheat in the province had been fixed at Rs2,000 per 40 kilogrammes.
He urged the federal government to realise the economic hardships of the growers in Sindh as several vital crops had been destroyed, including tomatoes.