Condemning the first known ground assault into Pakistani tribal areas by the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan as "unacceptable attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity", Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously recommended "all out measures" to Islamabad to prevent such deadly border violations in future.
Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, exercising his constitutional powers, summoned a fresh session on Saturday for secret balloting on presidential elections to be held from 10am to 3:00 pm Saturday's session would be presided over by Chief Justice Sindh High Court Anwar Zahir Jamali, to be assisted by the provincial election commissioner.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) dominated provincial legislature was also unanimous in carrying a treasury backed motion, calling for increasing the number of Standing Committees, which are meant to examine the proposed legislations and to deal with different subjects assigned to various departments under Rules of Business, from 14 to 30.
A general session of Sindh Assembly, which was held at Assembly Building with Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair, also adopted a resolution condemning an apparently assassination attempt on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani last Wednesday in Islamabad.
The provincial legislators expressed their deep outrage and condemnation over the indiscriminate killing of at least 20 people, including four children, in South Waziristan agency by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), after the two houses of the Parliament, National Assembly and Senate, passed a joint resolution the Wednesday's pre-dawn helicopter borne raid.
"This Assembly... recognises the incident as an unacceptable attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and strongly recommends that the government approach the federal government to take... all out measures" to prevent recurrence of such attacks in future, said the document.
The Assembly, after witnessing supporting speeches from the two benches of the house, also cleared increase in the number of Standing Committees in view of, what Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, the mover, contended "creation of the new departments".
Those who spoke in support of the resolution included Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Shoaib Bukhari, Shazia Marri, Ayaz Soomro and Sassui Palijo from the treasury and Abdul Razzak Rahimoo, Shehryar etc from the opposition benches.
Leader of the House Syed Qaim Ali Shah stressed the importance for proper functioning of the committees with more responsibilities not power. "All absolute powers corrupt absolutely," the chief minister quoted the famous Greek philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC). Rejecting any distinction among the members in terms of perks and privileges, he hoped that the proposed committees would "create constructive atmosphere for the betterment of the people of Sindh".
Ayaz Soomro said an increase in the number of Standing Committees was imperative in view of a significant population growth and the resultant increase in the number of their representatives in the assembly. He said the move would help the PPP-led government involve more and more members of the Assembly in addressing important issues on the floor of the house.
Syed Sardar Ahmed of MQM said the increase which, if approved, would be the first ever since 1975, and was important as the number of departments had risen to 33 with an extensive increase in their responsibilities. "We would consider the level of empowerment for committees to improve their performance in the second phase," the MQM leader said in response to Munawar Ali Abbasi's demand of giving the proposed parliamentary bodies with sue motu powers.
Marvi Rashdi of Pakistan Muslim League-F, referring to the rules setting the number of committee members at 11, expressed the concern over, what she said one person would be officiating in two different committees. Sardar Ahmed said there was no such problem.
The proposed Standing Committees include Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Board of Revenue, Co-operation and Community Development, Culture, Tourism and Archives, Finance and Inter Provincial Co-ordination, Food, Supply and Prices, Environment and Alternate Energy and Power, Education and Literacy, Excise and Taxation, Health, Home, Prisons, Forests and Wildlife, Industries and Mineral Development, Information, Irrigation, Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights, Local Government, Katchi Abadi and Rural Development, Planning and Development, Population Welfare, Social Welfare and Women Development, Public Health, Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr: Auqaf, Minority, SGA&CD, Works and Services, Science and Technology and Information Technology, Labour, Youth affairs and Sports and Transport.
Meanwhile, the chief minister came up with an assurance that the assembly staffers would get their package announced by him in the post-Budget 2008-09 sessions within the next three days, after Shazia Marri had raised this issue on a point of order. She also requested the CM to announce, like other assemblies, "Ramazan Allowance" worth Rs 1000 each for the inflation-stricken employees of Assembly Secretariat.
QUESTION HOUR: Revenue Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah told the house that an investigation would again be conducted into the fire incident, which was reportedly not caused by the short circuit, in the office of Sindh Board of Revenue in Karachi.
He said his department would soon lodge a fresh FIR against the incident, as the earlier inquiries were incomplete, on which the chief minister had also expressed his reservations. He said some recent findings, like a quarrel between two officials from Arms Services Board and a wrongly lodged FIR, were giving birth to many questions.
The fire had burnt the maps of some rural areas of Karachi, besides precious revenue records of some of the areas in Sindh province due to which the government had banned selling/purchasing of land in all the affected areas.
The revenue minister said his department had embarked upon the task of computerising the entire revenue and land records of Sindh province at a cost of Rs 921 million. Earlier, on a point of order, the members also raised different issues including the alleged involvement of "Qadyanis" in the blasphemous activities in Taluka Kunry, loadshedding during "Iftar" and "Sehry" timings, secret agencies' highhandedness towards fishermen etc.
Meanwhile, the Speaker announced that the Governor had approved "The Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2008". Later, Speaker Nisar Khuhro, on behalf of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, prorogued the session until Saturday (today) at 10 am.