Amid disorder the Sindh Assembly on Friday passed a censure motion with simple majority against Leader of the Opposition Nisar Ahmed Khuhro for his uncalled for remarks on the working of the Sindh Assembly that had appeared in last Friday's newspapers. Muhammad Hussein chaired the session in the absence of Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussein Shah.
Mover of the censure motion treasury MPA Aslam Pervez said that the remarks of the leader of the opposition had belittled the stature of this 'august House' and had injured the feelings of its members.
The motion was put before the House and was carried with majority votes.
The presentation of the censure motion and its adoption by the simple majority annoyed the opposition members, who criticised the way the entire situation was dealt with. They gathered around the speaker's table and raised slogans against the chair for being partial and called in question attitude of the treasury members towards the opposition.
Law Minister Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed tried to intervene and bring order in the House but his efforts proved ineffective. In the course of discussion he criticised Khuhro which added fuel to the fire. Responding to the law minister's statement, Khuhro said that he had just referred to his statement in the newspaper whereas he had all along been saying this on the floor of the House that if the Assembly is to be made a joke, then it should be suspended.
He said that the affairs of the Assembly were not being managed properly. The ongoing session had been called after the budget session. He said that members come to the House to represent their electorate and to bring into the notice of the government hardships of the people.
He said that the law minister had spoken about his performance, but it was a fact that to reply questions is the responsibility of the government as it was only through this exercise performance of the ministers and the departments could be brought before the people.
He said that the rules of procedures provided for discussion on privilege and adjournment motions but this practice had been curbed in the House. Many of these motions were still to be disposed of.
He said that these two bills about which the treasury had talked about were taken out of turn and out of the two, one related to meat business.
Khuhro said that he had been asking to run the Assembly for at least four hours but it had never been heeded to.
Earlier, in a statement on the floor of the House law minister Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed castigated the leader of the opposition and referred to his statement appearing in Friday's newspapers and said that since Friday last the House has passed two bills, presented two bills, laid six ordinances and obtained consent of the governor to five bills. In addition, he said that the House has carried out questions regarding Broad of Revenue, Excise and Taxation, Agriculture, Health and Education.
He said that the House has passed a resolution on the devastation that had struck northern areas.
"In the presence of this much work, the leader of the opposition criticises the House, which is unfair," he added.
He said that those who are asking for suspension of the Assembly should be expelled from the House and their membership should be suspended.
The law minister questioned the validity of charges, observations and allegations that the leader of the opposition had labelled against the House and advised him to look the brighter sides of the contributions that members of the House were making.
In between the censure motion, exchange of hot words and rumpus the question hour was also taken up and it lasted for five minutes. Probably this is the shortest possible time in which question hour (period for question hour is one hour) was completed.
During the entire proceedings the House remained in the grip of protests from the opposition. To bring the house into order a break of 15 minutes was given. But after the break when the House resumed its business there was enough material available with the opposition to continue its protest against the censure motion and the attitude of the law minister toward the opposition.
Finding no way out the chair adjourned the House to meet on Monday at 9 am.
Comments
Comments are closed.