He said, she said: MQM, PPP brandish political arsenal on the floor of the House

Memon says they can’t allot MQM seats in the opposition till the governor accepts resignations.

KARACHI:

The MPAs, on either side of the fence in the Sindh Assembly, are at war.

Every session is peppered with accusations and counter-accusations and has forced two of Sindh's main players - the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to an ugly confrontation.

All hell broke loose during Monday's session when an MPA from the treasury 'spilled the beans and disclosed a secret'. Slogans such as 'zalimon jawab do, khoon ka hisab do' [oh barbarians, answer for the blood], and 'yeh ghundagardi nahi chaley gi' [this hooliganism won't work] echoed through the assembly. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani repeatedly asked MPAs from both the parties to calm down but they continued to scream, shout and protest.

The situation spiraled out of control when information and local government minister Sharjeel Memon claimed that an employee of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) identified as Farooq Dada, an MQM activist, was also a target killer. He added that Dada had been killed in an alleged police encounter a while ago. "This is not the only case," said Memon. "Many target killers and notorious criminals have been appointed at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporations and KWSB out of turn or against the rules."

Memon's direct response was in reply to concerns raised by a few MQM MPAs who had alleged that the local government department had failed to deliever in major towns and cities, including Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas. This annoyed the MQM leaders who immediately stood up and started to protest against the minister's statements.

"You are blaming our men, these party workers were killed in extrajudicial killings during the ongoing targeted operation," said MQM's deputy parliamentary leader, Khwaja Izharul Hassan. “If Dada was their man, whose patronage did Rehman Dakait enjoy?”

As the MQM started to complain and criticise the PPP, their microphones were switched off. It was difficult to hear what was going on as the MPAs started shouting over each other. Durrani tried to get the session in order but the MPAs were getting aggressive.

As the arguments continued, Durrani instead, asked the minister for parliamentary affairs, Dr Sikandar Mandro, to finish the agenda for the day so he could adjourn the session.

These seemed to have the desired effect, as members from both the parties sat down in their seats as soon as Dr Mandhro stood up to speak and the session resumed.

Earlier in the session

It all started when the MQM's Kamran Akhtar on his call-attention notice inquired about the amount of development funds allocated for Karachi and other districts of the province from January 2010 to October 2014. "There has been massive embezzlement in the local government department's funds," he said. "Karachi generates 90 per cent of the province's revenue but its citizens struggle to get a sip of water." He added that corrupt officers had been appointed in every district of the city and this was the root of the problem.

The session grew tense as Akhtar took his seat and Rana Ansar and Zafar Ahmed Khan Kamali took up the issue of municipal services in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas. "Since Partition, no one except the Musharraf government did any development work in our town." Memon responded to these statements and claimed that the PPP government had appointed officials in Hyderabad in consultation with the MQM.

Seating arrangements

MQM's Muhammad Hussain took up the issue of the party's MPAs and their allocation of seats on the opposition benches, but Memon said that these could not be allotted till the governor accepted the resignation of the MQM's ministers. The session was later adjourned by the speaker till Tuesday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.