Opposition’s protest mars PA business as session adjourned twice

The vociferous protest of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly caused a forced adjournment of the session twice on Tuesday, resulting in the House not transacting any business listed on the agenda for the day’s sitting.

The opposition lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Grand Democratic Alliance protested in the Assembly for the second consecutive day, marring its routine proceedings.

The protest was against the delay in the forming of the standing committees of the Assembly and against not offering the coveted position of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the PA to the opposition.

The opposition believes that the chairmanship of the PAC of the House should be given to the PA’s leader of the opposition in accordance with the spirit of the Charter of Democracy, as what has been an established norm in the lower house of the country’s parliament: the National Assembly.

The PA did not take up any item listed on the agenda for the day’s sitting of the Assembly despite the fact that it was the private members’ day.

In view of the opposition’s protest, PA Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani first adjourned the sitting for 10 minutes and then later he was compelled to adjourn the session again until 2pm on Thursday (tomorrow), as the agitation continued in the House unabated.

The opposition legislators of the three parties held a sit-in demonstration around the speaker’s rostrum.They also tore up the copies of the day’s agenda. Despite repeated directions by the speaker, the opposition did not end their protest in the House.

After the first adjournment of the proceedings for 10 minutes, the speaker asked the opposition to end their protest, letting the House function and transact its business according to the routine, as the media had covered the demonstration held inside the Assembly.

The speaker said that he would let the opposition lawmakers speak in the PA after going through the business of the House as listed on the agenda for the day. He expressed remorse that the opposition had torn up the copies of the agenda that contained honorific words.

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh said the opposition legislators had made up their minds to do hooliganism in the House, adding that such an attitude would not be allowed inside the Assembly.

Peoples Assembly

The protesting MPAs of the opposition later held a Peoples Assembly on the steps of the provincial legislature’s building. MQM lawmaker Muhammad Hussain Khan acted as the speaker of the parallel assembly.

Several opposition legislators addressed the informal gathering at the PA’s premises to highlight “bad governance in the province causing serious miseries to the people owing to misrule of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for the past several years”.

A resolution was unanimously passed on the occasion to censure the alleged bad governance of the provincial administration in the sectors of health, education, law & order, sanitation and civic services as well as similar issues of public interest.

The opposition MPAs who attended the parallel sitting of the unofficial assembly held placards and shouted slogans against the alleged ill-performance of the Sindh government.They also criticised the conduct of the PA speaker for not letting them speak on their issues during the session of the Assembly.

PA opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi and opposition lawmakers Haleem Adil Sheikh, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, Barrister Hasnain Mirza, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi and others spoke on the occasion.

They lambasted the “poor performance” of the Sindh government owing to which several genuine issues of the people in the province have allegedly been unresolved for the past several years and causing them severe hardships.

Later, MQM legislator Muhammad Hussain Khan announced that the Peoples Assembly would meet again on Thursday.The protesting opposition lawmakers also submitted a resolution in the secretariat of the Sindh Assembly against the public issues across the province that are pending for the past decade as well as against not offering the PAC chairmanship to the opposition leader in the House.