PA unanimously condemns attack on Hindu temple

The Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to condemn a recent mob attack on a Hindu temple in District Rahim Yar Khan.

The resolution was moved in the house by a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Grand Democratic Alliance, Nand Kumar Goklani. The resolution said the temple had been vandalised in southern Punjab as part of a conspiracy against interfaith harmony in the country. It demanded that the culprits should be arrested immediately.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Mangla Sharma said that the incident of vandalism against a sacred place of a religious minority in the country had taken place for the first time in the country.

She said Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed should promptly take action against the culprits. An MPA of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf belonging to minorities, Sanjay Gangwani, informed the house that Prime Minister Imran Khan had taken cognisance of the incident.

Earlier, Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani said the resolution, once it was passed by the house, would be sent to the Punjab government for further action against the culprits and protection of the worship places of the minorities.

Solidarity with Kashmiris

The house also unanimously passed a resolution to express solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of Youm-e-Istehsal on August 5.

“The Pakistani nation expresses solidarity with the people of Kashmir on Youm-e-Istehsal, 5th August, and supports the resolve of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” said the resolution signed by lawmakers of different parliamentary parties in the house.

It stated that Pakistan would continue to extend all possible assistance to the Kashmiris till the realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination and a just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

The resolution also condemned the unlawful actions of the Indian government after August 5, 2019, to change the demographic situation of the occupied Kashmir that viciously aimed at converting the Kashmiris into a minority in their own native land.

Cheating in exams

An opposition legislator belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Syed Abdul Rasheed, raised the issue of widespread use of unfair means, including smart phones, by candidates who appeared in the recently held Secondary School Certificate (Matriculation) Examinations in the province.

Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, who has just been relieved of the education portfolio, responded in the house that the use of unfair means by candidates in the boards’ exams was a nationwide menace. He said the government had taken cognisance of the situation, conceding that performance of the examination boards in the province in this regard had been unsatisfactory.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla assured the house that a report would be presented on the recent tragedy of causalities of several people in Hyderabad due to a transformer blast during the Eidul Azha holidays.

The issue was raised by MQM legislator Nadeem Ahmed Siddiqui, who stated that the people in his constituency in Hyderabad had suffered a massive tragedy due to the blast incident when people in the rest of the country were celebrating Eidul Azha festivities.

He demanded that 22 people of his constituency had suffered severe burn injuries as a result of the transformer blast. He demanded that the government should pay compensation to the

victims of the tragedy.