Monday being one of the most unruly and lively sittings of the Sindh Assembly marked condemnation of Punjab chief minister's statement on Sunday, demands for an uninterrupted supply of power from Wapda to the load shedding-hit Sindh, applause for the 18th Amendment, a rare ANP-MQM honeymoon, rejection of the idea of creating new provinces and maiden calls for executing former president Pervez Musharraf in the wake of United Nations Commission's report on Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
With a thin attendance in assembly, the sitting remained most of the time unruly with Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza calling upon the members like PPP's Imran Lughari to "be serious". The chair's call, however, seemed to have fallen on deaf ears in the PPP-dominated house where the legislators kept humming through cross talk.
At 3:35pm, the count of provincial lawmakers stood at 48 in the 168-member assembly, which was earlier brought to order by the deputy speaker with almost two-hour delay at 11:40am. The opposition benches were next to vacant as many of the lawmakers including Leader of Opposition Jam Madad Ali did not show up during the hours long sitting.
NO TO NEW PROVINCES Witnessing certain upsets like a rare exchange of praises between the MQM and ANP lawmakers, the day saw the PPP members like Sassui Palijo, Dr Sikandar Shoro and Imdad Patafi strongly rejecting the idea of creating new federating units especially in Sindh province.
"Talks of establishing new provinces should be stopped now. Those who feel ashamed in being called a Sindhi should leave Sindh," said Patafi seconded by Culture Minister Sassui Palijo who said that a conspiracy theory is being hatched to divide the Sindh province under the garb of Hazara issue.
The house also saw Shoaib Bukhari and Khalid Ahmed of the MQM congratulating their "ANP friends" on getting their 63-year-old demand for the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwah. Amir Nawab Khan and Amanullah Mehsood of the ANP reciprocated the same spirit and lauded leadership of the ANP, MQM and PPP for developing consensus on the issue. Vowing to take the people of Hazara onboard through dialogue, Khan said many did not know the historical fact that Hazara was the name of an area and not a nation.
MUSHARRAF BLASTED The PPP members like Bachal Shah, Farheen Mughal and Ayaz Soomro voiced the issue of their party chairperson Benazir Bhutto's assassination and wished that former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf be taken to task.
Calls for executing Musharraf, whose government was held responsible by the UN Commission's report for the killing of Benazir on December 27, 2007, came for the first time after release of the UN report. "You talk of a bullet still lying in your magazine, but let me tell you that one day you would shoot your own chest with that as you are the murderer of Benazir Bhutto," Shah conveyed to the former president.
Mughal, congratulating the Constitutional Reforms Committee for the 18th Amendment, wished that the former dictator could be brought back to the country and be, what she said, revenged for the murder of Benazir.
PUNJAB CM UNDER FIRE Treasury members, Khalid Ahmed, Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Rafique Engineer complaining of 6 to 15 hours load shedding in the urban and rural Sindh, on points of order condemned Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif's statement, on Sunday regarding power shortage, as inflammatory.
The coalition partners called upon the Wapda not to ensure an uninterrupted supply of power to any of the provinces at the expense of others, as suggested by Sharif. "700 MW power supply of Wapda to the KESC should continue uninterrupted," Dr Sagheer demanded, adding that power generation should be the focus of those concerned and not supply-cutting of certain areas.
18TH AMENDMENT FLAYED With couple of exceptions like Nusart Seher Abbasi and Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, over 30 lawmakers from two divides of the house spoke on the 18th Amendment and recognised the constitutional reforms as a 'historic achievement' and triumph of democracy.
A strong clamour came from treasury benches with Durrani, Bachal Shah, Kulsoom Chandio, Farheen Mughal on their feet, when Abbasi of PML-F, PPP's ally in the center and Sindh, sought explanation for some of the articles pertaining to the Concurrent List, 50 percent share in oil and gas resources for the federating units, the number of seats in provincial assemblies, various duties and taxes etc.
"I cannot praise it only," the 'friendly' opposition member said when the chair warned her against a clause-by-clause evaluation of the legislation that, Shehla said, had got a nod from the parliament and was awaiting a presidential assent just as a formality. Sardar Ahmed, MQM's parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly, was however, quick in reminding the deputy speaker that the president's approval was a must for a legislation to take effect.
Khursheed Khokhar, PPP's member for the reserved seat for minorities, was the second to show dissatisfaction over the Amendment demanding the abrogation of anti-minorities laws like Article 295-B and C. Though appreciative of the changes as a whole, the Christian legislator also wished that number of seats in the national and provincial assemblies be increased like the Senate. The criticism fell heavily on the PPP lawmakers including the chair who were in no mood but to cry up the 18th Amendment, which Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani termed as a 'biggest achievement' of the present government.
RESOLUTION PASSED Later, after general discussion on the 18th Amendment, the house said yes to a resolution tabled jointly by Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haque, Tourism Minister Shazia Marri, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Murad Ali Shah, Rafique Engineer, Amir Nawab Khan, Leader of Opposition Jam Madad Ali and Arif Mustafa Jatoi.
The resolution reads: "This Assembly felicitates all democratic forces on the passing of the 18th Amendment from the National Assembly and the Senate of Pakistan; recognises this historic achievement as the triumph of democratic forces who have freed the 1973 Constitution given by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from the scourge of dictators; pays tribute to honourable President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani for furthering the struggle of Shaheed Muhtarama Benazir Bhutto who gave her life for the liberty of her nation; acknowledges the perseverance of the constitutional committee headed by Senator Mian Raza Rabbani and salutes the foresight of all political leaders committed to the spirit of national reconciliation."
Commenting on the resolution the members like Ayaz Soomro, Pir Mazhar, Shazia Marri and some 30 others lauded the President for devolving his powers to the parliament. The members viewed that the provisos providing on declaration of emergency subject to nod of the provincial assemblies, abolition of Concurrent List etc, were a step forward towards provincial autonomy.
The chair was appreciative when Pir Mazhar suggested that the day of the passage of 18th Amendment should be celebrated every year through the issuance of special supplements. He further said the members of Constitutional Reforms Committee (CRC) be invited and honoured in the province.
In her concluding remarks, the deputy speaker termed the legal changes as fortunate saying such initiatives, being a revenge for judicial murder of the party founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, had always come from the PPP government. Then she called it a day to meet again Tuesday at 9:30am.
50MW POWER PLANT Earlier during the Question Hour, Minister for Environment and Alternative Energy Sheikh Muhammad Afzal told the house that Sindh government was planning to set up a 50MW Solar Thermal Power Plant at a cost of Rs 24 billion in the north of province.
Replying to a starred question of NPP's Arif Mustafa Jatoi the minister said the plant, per unit of which would be priced at 23 cents, would be established at one of the three sites including Ghotki, Khairpur or Sukkur, where enough sunshine is available for some 300 days of a year.
He said the provincial government through consultancy was taking up the modalities like technical feasibility, finalisation of PC-I, preparation of tender documents and identification of implementation strategy. Sheikh, however, said it was yet to be finalised that whether the project would be undertaken on the basis of public-private-partnership or by the private sector only.
Comments
Comments are closed.