Treasury’s ‘walkout’ prevents opposition from tabling bills

Proceedings adjourned twice as most treasury lawmakers leave PA

The proceedings of the Sindh Assembly were abruptly adjourned twice on Tuesday amid unusual scenes as most treasury lawmakers belonging to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party staged a “walkout” from the House one by one to register their protest against the deputy speaker for not allowing them to speak on a resolution that declared Sindhi a national language.

Though the private resolution moved by opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Functional MPA Nand Kumar Goklani was unanimously passed, most treasury lawmakers present there at the time started leaving immediately afterwards, causing a lack of quorum and the abrupt adjournment of the proceedings twice.

The undeclared walkout by the most treasury lawmakers left the agenda of the “private members’ day” incomplete as reports on two private bills concerning religious minorities could not be presented before the House.

Later, lawmakers of the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the PML-F old reporters that it was for the first time in any assembly of the country that treasury members had staged a walkout in such a manner.

They maintained that the legislators of the ruling party did so to deny the opposition the opportunity to present their bills in the house concerning the protection and rights of minorities.

Kumar said the reports on the two important private bill concerning minorities - one for the minorities rights commission and other for the protection of minorities through criminal law against forced conversion - were ready to be presented before the House but the treasury lawmakers walked out from the house showing their sheer hostility towards minorities.

MQM MPA Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, the leader of the opposition in the House, said it was the for the first time in the country’s history that treasury lawmakers had walked out of the assembly to have the session abruptly adjourned so that the opposition could be prevented from presenting their bills.

The lack of quorum caused by the undeclared walkout by the treasury MPAs compelled deputy speaker Shehla Raza, who was chairing the session at the time, to adjourn the House for five minutes. Later, Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani resumed the chair but because of the lack of quorum, he had to adjourn the session for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, the speaker returned to the House and adjourned the session till Wednesday (today).

Initially, the MQM opposed the resolution declaring Sindhi a national language but later Hasan said the lawmakers of the party would support the passage of the resolution.

He said the opposition lawmakers would support the promotion of Sindhi and suggest steps for it too.

He added that the government should look into as to why private schools in the province were not teaching Sindhi as a compulsory subject.

Earlier, opposing the resolution, MQM parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed said if any regional language was declared a national language, then it would be in violation of the policy of the Quaid-e-Azam, who despite protests by the residents of the then East Pakistan, had declared Urdu the only national language in the country.

He said instead of recommending declaring Sindhi or any other regional language as the national language, the provincial assembly should recommend that a top level committee comprising experts at the federal level be formed to carefully examine in detail the reasons and causes for declaring any other language as the new national language of the country.

Sindh culture minister Sardar Ali Shah said Sindhi was included in the list of the national languages of India even though there was lesser number of Sindhi-speaking people there than in Pakistan.

He said the lawmakers concerned wanted that that in addition to Sindhi, other regional languages should also be declared national languages as they being spoken by the people of this land for thousands of years.

Parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said more lawmakers from the treasury benches wanted to express their opinion on the resolution because of the importance of the issue.

On one occasion, education minister Jam Mehtab Dahar told the deputy speaker that if the treasury legislators were denied the right to speak on the resolution concerning Sindhi, they would be compelled to move their own version of the resolution.

Deputy speaker Shehla Raza said she could not allow more speeches on the same resolution, including those from treasury’s side, when a consensus had been reached in the House on the subject.

Resolution against KE

The House unanimously adopted a private resolution moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Khurrum Sher Zaman against the K-Electric for excessive billing, power outages, and other malpractices.

The resolution read, “This House resolves that all relevant government departments and agencies at both the federal and provincial levels should take action against the K-Electric for excessive billing, load shedding, and other malpractices. This House acknowledges that the K-Electric’s high tariff rates combined with other highhanded excesses have unjustly squeezed the life and finances of the people of Karachi. This House resolves that the Sindh Government take whatever action it can against the K-Electric and also pursue this issue immediately with the federal government, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, and the National Accountability Bureau.”

Another resolution moved by PTI lawmaker Dr Seema Zia that too was unanimously passed by the assembly read, “This House resolves to recommend to all private hospitals to have a medico-legal centre in the hospital so that the precious lives can be saved and are not refused treatment.”

Speaking on her resolution, Dr Zia said that private hospitals usually denied emergency treatment to people injured in road accidents or because of the use of fire arms on the pretext that only public sector hospitals could provide treatment related to medico-legal cases. She said this attitude of private hospitals should be changed to save lives.

Health minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the resolution was a good effort as it would make binding upon private hospitals to provide first aid and medical treatment in medico-legal cases.