The Opposition parties' legislators on Friday walked out of the Sindh Assembly to register protest against the death of an imprisoned activist of MQM in Karachi which MQM said was caused by torture in jail. As soon as the proceedings began, the opposition leader, Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan who hail from MQM, raised the matter of his party worker's 'killing' in prison. He said that the government should set up the assembly's committee to ascertain the facts.
However, provincial minister, Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar refused to form the proposed committee ahead of the official inquiry. He said the inquiry should be completed first. He said government was quite ready to make the inquiry report public within a week and if there is a need, a judicial committee would also be established. Izhar-ul-Hassan said that it was the seventh such incident that MQM activist died in prison hence he insisted on the formation of the committee comprising legislators. Lanjar criticised the opposition, saying that "crying over everything has now the opposition's trend." Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Khuhro said that the reason behind the worker's death should be ascertained whether he died of torture or natural causes. He said it was responsibility of the minister for prisons to probe it.
Speaker, Agha Siraj Khan Durrani, asked the opposition members to get seated but the latter refused and began protest. The protesting MQM legislators resorted to a strong noisy protest and warned that they would not sit unless their demand was met. The MQM was also joined by other opposition parties and walked out of the assembly raising slogans. In the meantime, none of the call-attention-notices, adjournment and privilege motions were replied since the movers had already left the assembly. The house proceedings lasted for merely 29 minutes and then it was adjourned till Monday morning.
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