Chaos engulfs PA as opposition attacks opposition

The Sindh Assembly’s session on Thursday turned ugly when lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) attempted to physically stop a legislator of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) from presenting a privilege motion against the opposition leader in the House.

The privilege motion of MMA lawmaker Syed Abdul Rasheed was against the “derogatory” remarks of opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the PTI against two opposition legislators: one Rasheed himself and the other of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

The motion states that during the March 4 session of the PA, Naqvi said the two lawmakers had practically become the “lap children” of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and should be moved to the treasury benches because they did not belong to the opposition any more.

The privilege motion was being presented when the opposition legislators of the PTI, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Grand Democratic Alliance had surrounded the rostrum of the PA speaker in protest.

The opposition lawmakers, except the MPAs of the MMA and the TLP, were demonstrating against the provincial government’s decision of not offering the coveted chairmanship of the legislature’s influential Public Accounts Committee to the opposition leader.

Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani continued with the routine proceedings of the PA despite the fact that chaos reigned in the House due to the protest of the three opposition parties.

However, all the items on the day’s agenda that were moved by the opposition legislators, including those related to the question hour and the calling attention notices, could not be taken up for response from the treasury because of the vociferous agitation.

Rasheed spoke on his privilege motion from his front row seat on the opposition benches after scenes of scuffle and physical obstruction were witnessed in the House.

After the MMA lawmaker was crowded by the opposition legislators, PPP MPAs rushed towards the opposition benches to protect him so he could continue speaking on his privilege motion.

Threats

Talking to the media later, Rasheed said his microphone was forcibly switched off by PTI lawmakers, who had tried to physically attack him to stop him from presenting the motion. Voicing concerns about his safety, he said they had also threatened him.

The MMA MPA said he reserved the right to adopt legal recourse against the PTI legislators who had attempted to physically attack him and had threatened him inside the House.

He said he will move a motion in the PA to initiate punitive action against the unruly PTI lawmakers. He accused MPAs Adeel Ahmed, Raja Azhar, Arsalan Taj and Bilal Ghaffar of attempting to physically assault him.

Rasheed said the opposition leader’s attitude with him was completely unreasonable and unjust because Naqvi had never tried to seek his opinion in the different procedures and moves involving the opposition benches, including the issue of the forming of the PA’s standing committees.

The MMA legislator said the PTI had earlier led a move to make a forward bloc in the House to destabilise the PPP’s Sindh government through undemocratic means, but all such “immoral” attempts were futile because of disunity among the party’s MPAs.

He claimed that during the presidential election of Dr Arif Alvi last year, the PTI had polled 10 votes fewer from the Sindh Assembly, and seven of these 10 votes belonged to the PTI MPAs who had voted for the PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan.

Hooliganism

Speaking in the House earlier, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani urged the speaker to debar the PTI lawmakers who had resorted to hooliganism from the current session.

The minister termed the attack on the MMA legislator regrettable, saying that never before such ugly and unruly scenes had been witnessed in the House that involved physical assault. He said the protest of the opposition during PA sessions was like a routine feature of the assembly’s proceedings, but never before had the limits been crossed to resort to physical assault inside the House.

Jewellery

Durrani earlier clarified in the House that all the jewellery allegedly recovered by the team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from the bank lockers of his family belonged to his ancestors, as they were like antique pieces for being as old as 100 years.

The speaker issued the clarification after Naqvi said at the outset of the PA proceedings that the speaker was under a solemn obligation to inform the House about the alleged recovery of valuables from the bank lockers of his family.

Durrani said that all the valuable items recovered from the bank lockers of his family were fully declared in the statements of his wealth, adding that he had duly paid income and wealth tax on all the precious articles he had kept in the lockers. “While I have been keeping jewellery of my ancestors as old as 100 years, please do come forth if you have jewellery pieces even if they are 10 years old,” he said during his heated exchange of words with the opposition leader.

The speaker, who is in NAB’s custody since last month as investigation against him is under way into charges of corruption and unaccounted for assets, lamented that Naqvi had resorted to personalised attacks against him without taking into account prestige and dignity of his position.

Ghani and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla also condemned the opposition leader’s remarks against the speaker, terming them allegations of a personalised nature just to scandalise and malign without any valid basis.

Special committee

Through a majority vote, the House later constituted a special committee comprising lawmakers of both the treasury and opposition benches to consider the privilege motion of the MMA legislator.