Karachi
The lawmakers of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Functional alleged on Tuesday that the provincial assembly sitting on Wednesday (today) had deliberately been scheduled to start at 3pm to prevent them from reaching the Sanghar district in time for the local government elections there.
The provincial assembly sitting normally starts at 10am. A session is convened in the afternoon or the evening in rare cases, particularly if it is for the presentation of the provincial annual budget.
PML-F MPA Muhammad Shaharyar Khan Mahar, talking to reporters after Tuesday’s sitting was adjourned, said the only reason the sitting was convened so late was to prevent his party lawmakers from travelling from Karachi and reach Sanghar before polling started there.
“On one hand, we can’t miss tomorrow’s sitting as its might be crucial [the government’s resolution on Rangers’ special policing powers might be presented in the legislature] and on the other we can’t afford to miss the local government polls in Sanghar too,” he added.
“The move to convene the sitting so late exposes the ill-intention of the Pakistan People’s Party’s Sindh government as everybody knows that Sanghar is the PML-F’s stronghold.” He said the provincial government had also shown its ill-intention in dealing with the issue if extending the term of Rangers’ special anti-terrorism policing powers. “The provincial government, as per Article-147 of the Constitution, didn’t require the passage of a resolution in provincial assembly for extending the paramilitary focre’s special powers,” he maintained. “Instead, it could have been done merely through executive powers.”
Mahar, a former opposition leader in the provincial assembly, said the provincial government was neither extending the Rangers’ special powers term through its executive authority nor allowing the opposition to raise the issue in the House.
“It’s extremely undemocratic on the part of the chair [the speaker] to deny opposition lawmakers the right to speak in the House and raise genuine concerns and issues of the people.”
MQM says complaint justified
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, the leader of opposition in the House, said the PML-F lawmakers’ complaint about the timing of the sitting was justified.
“Similar complaints on how the assembly proceedings are conducted have emerged frequently and the treasury’s side hasn’t even formed the business advisory committee of the House, which could otherwise have easily addressed such issues,” he added.
“The opposition is denied its legitimate and democratic opportunity to raise issues concerning good governance and public service.”
Hassan criticised the attitude of deputy speaker Syeda Shehla Raza who was chairing the sitting earlier in the day.
The opposition leader said Raza gave no importance to the agenda of the day that contained items proposed by lawmakers privately through their individual efforts in the forms of private bills, motions, and resolutions.
He also pointed out that a privilege motion moved by MQM lawmaker Syed Khalid Ahmed had been ruled out of order by the deputy speaker during the sitting despite the fact that it was about the pressing issue of the unsatisfactory state of sanitation in Landhi, Korangi, and Shah Faisal colony.
Hassan said the government side in the House had used all its influence to protect the District Municipal Corporation Korangi’s administrator, against whom a privilege motion had been moved by the MQM’s legislator about the former being a part of the corrupt bureaucracy and having no regard for genuine public grievances.
He said the MQM would soon be able to elect its candidates as the mayor and the deputy mayor of Karachi who would replace the corrupt bureaucracy and provide solutions to the pressing civic problems of citizens.
To a question, the opposition leader said the MQM wanted Rangers granted special policing powers in the entire province so that the crackdown on terrorists and other criminals could be carried out across the board. He said the crackdown and Rangers’ special powers should not be confined to Karachi only.
Former chief minister Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi, now an opposition lawmaker in the assembly, also complained that the speaker and deputy speaker had constantly been denying the opposition the opportunity to express their views in the House on problems being faced by the public.