Opposition members up in arms over being silenced in assembly

Speaker defers question-and-answer, call attention notice sessions at PPP's request

KARACHI: Opposition members walked out of the Sindh Assembly session in protest on Friday after the government deferred the question-and-answer session and call attention notices.

At the start of the session, Parliamentary Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro diverted Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani's attention towards the ongoing discussion on the quarterly budget and requested that the question-and-answer session be deferred to allow more time for members to speak about the budget. He added that some Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) members also had to attend the death anniversary event of the former Sindh chief minister and father of current chief minister in Wahur, Jamshoro district.  After the speaker allowed this, Khuhro moved a motion in the house and the question-and-answer session and call attention notices were deferred.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPAs protested against this. "Our members have worked hard to submit these questions and move call attention notices on various issues faced by the people. This shows that you are not allowing us to raise their problems inside the house," said Aamir Moin Pirzada of MQM-Pakistan. After a brief protest, the PTI and MQM-Pakistan MPAs walked out of the house.



"There was a time when these people, while sitting on the treasury benches, had banned opposition speeches," remarked Khuhro, adding that the government has started a discussion on the budget and the opposition members should take part in it rather than protesting and making hue and cry inside and outside the session.

PPP MPA Ghazala Sial spoke about the quarterly budget expenses and said many development schemes have been completed and the PPP has provided relief to the people. Shortly after this, the speaker adjourned the session till Monday.

PTI MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman spoke to the media after the session and called the assembly a 'fake house', adding that the procedures being adopted were also fake. "No one from the government follows the actual rules," he lamented, accusing the speaker of conducting sessions as per his party's 'guidelines'.



"This assembly is not anyone's personal house. It is being run on the taxes collected from people," he said, adding that people living in Sindh are dying because of hunger but the ministers are not allowing the opposition to raise this issue and the speaker orders their microphones to be switched off.

Zaman announced that he would move an adjournment motion on this issue and protest again if the government does not allow them to speak.

In reaction to the opposition member's statements, Transport Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said that they had breached the privilege of the assembly by using such 'derogatory' words. "This is the assembly that had adopted the first resolution to create Pakistan," he said, adding that calling the Sindh Assembly a 'fake house' is totally insulting.



"The speaker runs the assembly according to the rules but these people want to hijack issues for their own vested interests. They have no concern for people's issues and only want to gain [personal fame]," he added. "They should tender an apology for using these words against assembly. If not, we will drag this issue in the next session."