Religious festivals of minorities: Sindh Assembly adopts resolution seeking public holiday

The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday adopted a private resolution asking the government to give the minorities' religious festivals an official status with declaring their sacred events as public holidays. The house however turned down a private resolution seeking licenses for the provincial legislators to carry prohibited bore weapons. The treasury rejected the resolution, fearing that any such move would undermine the arms free society drive.
PML-F's parliamentary leader - Nand Kumar tabled a resolution asking the government to declare Easter, Christmas, Holi, Dewali and other religious festivals of minorities as official holidays on a permanent basis in the province. But the PPP's Minority Affairs Minister Gayan Chan Israni told the house that the Sindh government had already decided to declare the religious holidays for the festivals on the directives of PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Gazala Siyal of ruling PPP got a resolution adopted by the assembly to stop the power distribution companies from unannounced load shedding. She protested that electricity was being provided for one hour in many parts of Sindh out of 24 hours. People are faced with simmering heat, she said, that the federal government was indifferent altogether towards the public miseries caused by the power outages. The third resolution sailed through the house, which PTI's lady lawmaker Seema Zia had forwarded asking the government to ban the sales of betel nuts and hazardous gutka in the province. She said that the tobacco made substances were injurious to human health. "It causes cancer," she told the house.
The assembly adopted the fourth resolution of MQM's Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani demanding of the government to set up a campus of the Sindh University in Hyderabad in the old Model School premises. He said that in the absence of a university, thousands of students failed to attain higher education in Hyderabad. The resolution failed to sail through the house was tabled by PML-F's legislator, Syed Muhammad Rashid Shah Rashdi to get the arms licenses of prohibited bores for the provincial lawmakers. He said that the arms were badly needed to help protect the legislators. He also sought a quota of 10 such licenses to each legislator.
Rashid said that the country was going through a bad phase of violence and that spurred him to ask for the licenses. He said that the ministers had modern arms and guards but there was no such protective shield for the legislators or common men. However, Sindh Finance Minister, Murad Ali Shah opposed the move, saying that the assembly's job was legislation and implementation of the laws, not providing arms licenses. Sindh Senior Education Minister, Nisar Khuhro said that the move was against the struggle for making the society weapons free. The house will meet on Friday morning.