MQM-P warns of daily walkout from PA during current session

MPAs leave proceedings over speaker’s rejection of adjournment motion on Sukkur’s turbid water

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) lawmakers walked out on the Sindh Assembly’s proceedings for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. This time round the problem was the speaker’s rejection of an adjournment motion on Sukkur’s turbid water.

A day earlier, MQM-P legislators had walked out of the House against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) provincial government for allegedly using pressure tactics to influence the result of a recent by-election for a union committee in Sukkur.

On Tuesday, MQM-P’s opposition leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan raised the issue of highly muddied water being supplied to the people of Sukkur. He lamented that Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani had rejected the relevant adjournment motion that Hassan had moved.

He said the speaker should not have killed the adjournment motion in his chamber and, instead, should have accepted it so that the House could discuss the important issue concerning the lives of the people of Sukkur.

He expressed remorse that the opposition lawmakers were not allowed to speak in the provincial legislature, as different motions submitted by them were being summarily rejected without any due consideration.

He said that in the past, the opposition had protested on the issue but now they had decided to stage a token walkout from the House on a daily basis during the current session.

He produced two bottles of muddied water and explained to the speaker that the bottles contained samples of highly polluted water being supplied to the people of Sukkur.

He said the samples were not handed to him by his colleagues on the opposition benches from Sukkur. Instead, he added, the samples were given to him by the people of Sukkur when he had visited their city.

He challenged the PPP lawmakers to either consume the water samples that were unfit for human consumption or allow him to move the adjournment motion.

He said the opposition legislators would be left with no other option but to protest and walk out of the assembly on a daily basis if they were not allowed to speak in the House and their motions were rejected.

Speaker Durrani said he was bound to reject motions if they were not moved in accordance with the rules of procedure of the provincial assembly. He said the rules were not framed by him but, instead, the entire House had drafted them.

He lamented that the opposition lawmakers, after boycotting the proceedings, made objectionable remarks against him and the legislature while talking with the media outside the assembly hall.

Hassan retorted that the speaker had relaxed the rules on various occasions to facilitate transactions of business of the House submitted by the government but he never did such a thing in the case of the opposition. Durrani clarified that he never took dictation from the government regarding the conduct of the House and always held the proceedings in accordance with the rules of procedure of the assembly.

He advised Hassan that the opposition lawmakers should sit with the relevant ministers present in the House to resolve their issues.

Hassan replied that in the past eight months, the opposition had neither come into contact with the government nor had it held any negotiation with the treasury benches.

He lamented that the business advisory committee of the provincial legislature was yet to be established despite repeated demands by the opposition.

As the MQM-P lawmakers walked out of the House for a brief period, other legislators on the opposition benches belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz did not follow suit.

Two resolutions rejected

Later, two private resolutions moved by the MQM-P lawmakers were also rejected by the speaker as he termed them out of order.

One resolution was moved by MPA Dr Zafar Kamali calling for upgrading the cardiology ward of the Mirpurkhas Hospital into the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro opposed the resolution on the grounds that no ward of any hospital could be upgraded as an independent institute, although the condition of the ward could be improved.

He said the government was in the process of establishing a separate hospital of cardiovascular diseases in Mirpurkhas where treatment facilities, including open-heart surgery and angioplasty, would be available.

The other resolution moved by MPA Kamran Akhtar called for the provincial government to establish a cadet college in Karachi.

Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said the resolution did not make any sense because two cadet colleges were already operating in the city, one in Gadap and the other in Razzakabad. He said the government was in the process of establishing one cadet college in every district of the province.

Meanwhile, the House unanimously adopted a private bill moved by PPP MPA Kulsoom Chandio for establishing Ilma University in the private sector of Karachi.

The opposition leader had objected that the bill should not be passed in a hurry as its draft was made available to the members of the House only a few hours ago. Instead, he added, the bill should be referred to the relevant standing committee for consideration.