Blame game: Balochistan Assembly descends into chaos

Session adjourned for 15 minutes after members exchanged abuses.

QUETTA:

Treasury and opposition members exchanged harsh words and traded corruption charges during the session of Balochistan Assembly on Tuesday, prompting a 15-minute adjournment of the proceedings.

The assembly session was held under the chairmanship of Sardar Raza Muhammad Barrech. On the request of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) Nasrullah Zere, members offered Fateha for the Peshawar blast victims.

On a point of order, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Engineer Zamrak Khan Achakzai said that “if there wasn’t any agenda then the session shouldn’t have been called.”



“It’s an assembly, not a joke. We wouldn’t tolerate this in the future.” Engineer Zamrak said, adding that we are representatives of the people and they sent us here for solving their basic problems, not to enjoy tea and Pakooras.

While addressing the floor, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Shahida Rauf said the recent increase in prices of petrol and diesel are crippling the masses.

PkMAP minister Rahim Ziaratwal countered this tirade by saying that the increase in petrol and electricity prices was a federal government’s issue.

PkMAP’s Nasrullah Zere and Rahim Ziaratwal confronted each other and said you are part of the government and if you want to censure the provincial government you must sit on the opposition benches.

PkMAP’s Liaquat Agha alleged that every MPA of the past regime devoured Rs1.45 billion and that they would have to pay back the embezzled money.

This remark triggered a ruckus in the assembly, with opposition members hurling tit-for-tat allegations against members of the treasury benches.

The chairman of the panel Sardar Raza Muhammad Barrech couldn’t stop the bedlam and adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes.

PkMAP’s Dr Hamid Achakzai said: “The way we used abusive language on the floor is condemnable.”

National Party’s Rehmat Baloch lamented the rowdy conduct of fellow members. “I urge the speaker to suspend the membership of MPA who dares to violate the floor’s respect in the future,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2013.