Opposition seeks PA session to discuss Thar deaths, water scarcity

The joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday submitted an application in the assembly secretariat to requisition a session of the provincial legislature so that the frequent deaths of children in Thar and acute drinking water shortage in the entire province could be discussed.

Opposition MPAs belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Grand Democratic Alliance and Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan signed the application. It carried the signatures of around 35 MPAs, which is less than the requirement of at least 42 legislators signing such a requisition to summon the assembly session.

The application was submitted after the parliamentary party leaders of political parties in the opposition of Sindh Assembly held a meeting. Talking to newsmen after submitting the application, parliamentary PTI leader Haleem Adil Sheikh claimed that in the ongoing year alone, some 500 children had died in Thar and its surroundings, but the Sindh government seemed to have been completely aloof to this situation.

He said that transporting the ailing children of Thar to Civil Hospital Mithi had become difficult. Sheikh said that during the last ten years of its rule in Sindh, the Pakistan Peoples Party had spent billions of rupees to overcome situation of food shortage but to no avail.

According to the PTI leader, the joint opposition had sought a session of the Sindh Assembly as it wanted to discuss the acute water shortage in Sindh and the alarming rate at which children in Thar were dying of malnutrition.

He suggested that a Thar commission should be established on the pattern of the Water Commission – the Supreme Court mandated body probing Sindh’s environmental woes – to provide emergency support to Thari people.

Muhammad Hussain Khan, MPA of MQM, said the constitution of Water Commission in Sindh had amply shown that PPP’s ten-year rule in the province was an utter failure. Not a single area in the province was being supplied with clean drinking water, he said.

Khan said that the Constitution gave right to the opposition to summon a session of the assembly as there were a number of issues that should be discussed in the house. The Sindh government has completely failed to provide water to the people of Thar, he declared.

Parliamentary party leader of GDA Barrister Hasnain Mirza said that the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan related to people having basic rights were being trampled upon in Sindh. He said clean drinking water was one of the very basic necessities of life.

According to Mirza, the opposition wanted to raise its voice in the house on the issue of basic human rights as it seemed that the Sindh government had become dormant after passing the new provincial budget.