MQM, PPP MPs come to blows in Sindh PA

KARACHI: An attempt to read out a resolution against the anti-army statement of former president Asif Ali Zardari by the lawmakers of the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the Sindh Assembly on Monday resulted in the abrupt adjournment of the session.
In fact, the House was adjourned twice in one day, with the MQM lawmakers protesting vehemently both times.
The first adjournment lasted for ten minutes after a scuffle broke out between MQM’s Dr Zafar Jamali and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Dr Abdul Sattar Rajpar.
Leader of opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan had sought time from the Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani so his fellow MPA Muhammad Azeem Farooqui could talk about MQM activist Muhammad Hashim who was found dead near Hyderabad. By the time Hashim was identified as an MQM worker, the Hyderabad police had buried the deceased.
Lawmakers of the party wore black armbands and had come to the session with portraits of the slain worker who belonged to Azizabad, the constituency of MQM MPA Azeem Farooqui. Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sikandar Mandhro assured the protesting legislators that the government would try its best to investigate the death of the slain MQM worker who had been missing since May 6.
When the MQM lawmakers raised their voices to be heard in the House, the Speaker and Information Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro dismissed the matter saying that the MQM lawmakers were “violating parliamentary rules and norms and disrupting proceedings” with their vociferous protests.
This enraged MQM MPA Dr Zafar Jamali attempted to move towards the chief minister’s seat when PPP’s Abdul Sattar Rajpar stepped in and pushed him away.
A shoving match between the two lawmakers ensued near the rostrum, as the women PPP MPAs formed a ring near the chief minister’s seat to protect him from the approaching opposition lawmakers who had assembled to protest while holding portraits of the party’s slain activist.
The scuffle resulted in a ten-minute adjournment of the session as provincial ministers from the treasury side and opposition leader and other senior parliamentarians from the opposition benches attempted to mediate and cool the enraged lawmakers down.
The second adjournment of Monday’s session occurred after MQM MPA Heer Ismail Soho was given the floor to read out her adjournment motion so the House could discuss its admissibility. However, instead, she read out the resolution the MQM had submitted on August 7 against former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. She made two attempts but with the vociferous protests by PPP legislators, she couldn’t read beyond the first line of the resolution.
In the meantime, the Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani had also switched off the microphone on her desk while reprimanding Soho that she was not allowed to discuss any other matter in the House except what was on the agenda.
Soho’s own adjournment motion which had been in the House’s agenda was to condemn the Jirga held in Daharki, district Ghotki.
The MQM lawmakers had submitted a resolution against Asif Ali Zardari in a tit-for-tat move after the Sindh Assembly had adopted a resolution on August 7 against Altaf Hussain for remarks ‘against the state and the army’. They had submitted two resolutions in the Sindh Assembly Secretariat, one against Asif Ali Zardari and the other against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan for their alleged remarks against army generals.
The resolution against MQM chief Altaf Hussain had been moved jointly by the PTI, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz while the PPP had lent its support to ensure its passage by the provincial assembly.
The protest and show of dissent by lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the Sindh Assembly on Monday was “in violation of rules and decorum of the parliament”, remarked the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah while talking to the media after Monday’s twice-adjourned session.
He remarked that the MQM lawmakers had adopted the wrong means to table their resolution against the PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari and the treasury benches will not allow the opposition party to play political point scoring in the Sindh Assembly.
In his press conference, the chief minister elaborated in detail the events relating to the death of MQM activist, Muhammad Hashim, who went missing in Karachi on May 6, but was later found dead near Hyderabad last month. He said the deceased was later identified by the National Database and Registration Authority on August 6.
He said the MQM should have raised the issue of the missing activist earlier through parliamentary norms, such as submission of an adjournment motion on the matter.
He said the Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani had adjourned the session for 10 minutes on his advice so he could gather all information about the slain MQM activist so he could inform the House on the matter.
However, he said, the MQM chose to adopt a highly uncalled-for manner for tabling their resolution against the PPP co-chairman when according to the rules of the assembly, MPA Heer Ismail Soho had to present her adjournment motion about the jirga in Ghotki.
He said the MQM had hidden agendas owing to which they created such a big rumpus in the Sindh Assembly and the proceedings had to be adjourned twice. The chief minister said the government had sought only a day’s time so they could have time to gather information and submit a befitting reply on the issue.
Also speaking to the media, information minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the conduct of MQM lawmakers in the House had thoroughly violated all parliamentary decorum. Instead of showing tolerance and regard, he said, the MQM lawmakers had resorted to rioting and creating a rumpus in the House.
He said it seemed that the MQM was feeling politically isolated, but that did not mean that its lawmakers could vent their anger and frustration inside the Sindh Assembly.
Meanwhile, the MQM lawmakers announced that they would try and get their resolution against Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan presented in the House at all costs.