Sindh Assembly session: PPP MPAs skewer Shahbaz Sharif

PPP have demand­ed a case be lodged agains­t Shahba­z Sharif for the assass­inatio­n of the Punjab govern­or.

KARACHI: Sindh Assembly members from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have demanded a case be lodged against Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for the assassination of the Punjab governor as according to them, he has links with militants and terrorist organisations.

No one else, apart from the PPP MPAs, touched the issue on Monday. And despite repeated suggestions by them, a resolution against Sharif's statement did not go through.

As the debate in the session against the Sharif brothers continued, PPP's parliamentary leader Pir Mazharul Haq called on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders Sardar Ahmed and Faisal Subzwari to join him in his chambers. He wanted to persuade them to come onboard for a joint resolution. But despite one and a half hours of persuasion, the MQM was not convinced and the coalition representatives returned. The session was adjourned soon after, in the wake of emotional speeches.

PPP legislators were extremely critical of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in their speeches, saying that the party was confined to Lahore and has now become a "GT road party" that neither has support nor a vote bank in other provinces.

They said that Shahbaz Sharif and his party leaders were using non-parliamentary language against President Zardari to create a "rift" among the provinces and "derail" the democratic government.

Sharjeel Inam Memon, who had raised the issue in the assembly, taunted, "Everyone knows the patriotic approach of the Mian brothers, who, after a tussle with Musharraf, managed to flee with their suitcases while leaving party workers behind." They claim to be the champions of an independent judiciary but people still recall the days when they had stormed the Supreme Court.

The MPAs did, however, unanimously pass a resolution moved by MQM MPA Abdul Moeed Siddiqui, to disapprove of dealers who closed petrol pumps in the city. Another resolution against the increase in railway fares, moved by MQM's Bilqees Mukhtiar, was withdrawn on the request of the law minister.

On a point of order, the PPP's Humera Alwani said that 92 containers of goods have been donated by Iran, Turkey and Malaysia for flood victims. But they are all being kept at Hilal-e-Ahmar's godown. In response, rehabilitation minister Muzaffar Shujra said the officials were sorting out a few things.

Heer Ismail Soho of the MQM raised the issue of aggression by the Punjab police at the Sindh border. They were raiding Obaro, Kamu Shaheed Pul and other villages of Deharki and Ghotki without the permission of the local authorities. Houses, livestock and valuables were being set on fire. "The police [says it is] chasing criminals, but I fail to understand how is happens without the permission," she said.

As the session started with Deputy Speaker Shahlaz Raza in chair, Nusrat Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-F raised the legality of the session as the governor and Speaker were abroad. Therefore, the deputy speaker should perform her duty as the acting governor and not the Speaker. Raza said that no orders from the president had come through, as he has the discretionary powers to appoint the speaker or deputy speaker as acting governor. "This all happened in 48 hours," she said. "I will go and take oath today."

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2011.