Assembly fails to take up public interest issues

Agenda includes three-year-old questions, says opposition

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly failed to complete its agenda for the umpteenth time on Friday, adjourning the session without taking up important legislation or public interest issues.

Opposition members also criticised the government for its lukewarm response towards important matters pending before the assembly secretariat. “My call attention against sugar mills was on the agenda but the deputy speaker adjourned the session,” complained Pakistan Muslim League (PML) - Nawaz MPA Syed Ameer Hyder Shah. Speaking to the media outside the assembly, he said that sugarcane growers in Sindh have been protesting but mill owners have not yet started crushing, due to which farmers are suffering huge losses. “Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza did not take up my call attention because she was afraid of sugar mill owners who also head her party,” he accused.

Among other items on the agenda which were not taken up were illegal encroachments on a graveyard in Karachi, a bill on safe blood transfusion and an adjournment motion by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman on encroachments on Edhi Centres in Sindh.

“The session was scheduled at 10am but the government always fails to maintain the quorum and run the session on time,” Ameer lamented, adding that the session is conducted in haste and the government always ignores opposition members’ legislation.

The members also decried outdated questions being put on the assembly agenda. “Two or three year old questions submitted by members are now being included in the agenda list,” complained PML-Functional’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi.  “We work hard and table questions and it takes a lot of time to hear the answer,” she said.



Though government officials could not give an appropriate response to these criticisms, the assembly secretary told The Express Tribune that the balloting process consumes a lot of time. “Government departments answer [questions] but we have thousands of questions in our holdover. We are trying to devise a mechanism to clear the holdover,” he said.

Factory closure

At the start of the session members requested to offer a prayer for the departed soul of Dina Wadia, the daughter of Quaid-i-Azam.  However, some MPAs kept on criticising the government even during the prayer.

Information and Labour Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah informed the House that around 160 small factories and cottages were closed in Sindh. During the question and answer session, when asked about the number of children working in factories, he said, “We have no confirmed data but the government, with the help of UNICEF, will conduct child labour surveys in the province.”

Presenting statistics about closed factories, the minister said that there were around 9,869 factories in Sindh of which 160 were closed. He announced that the Sindh Board of Investment will help those people who want to re-open their factories.



Memon bashes NAB

Former information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon once again criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for its discriminatory approach towards Sindh. “My apprehensions proved true as the federal government did not allow NAB entry in the Islamabad airport to arrest Nawaz Sharif,” he said, adding that NAB arrested him at the airport even though he had obtained bail. “The same thing happened inside the Sindh High Court from where they took me into custody without any arrest warrant,” he criticised. Memon, who was brought from Central Jail, Karachi to attend the session, criticised the PML-N leadership and said Nawaz Sharif started politics in the lap of military dictator General Ziaul Haq.

“Everyone knows that he received financial support from Osama Bin Laden to topple Benazir Bhutto’s government,” he accused, adding, “The Sharifs left the country under an agreement with the military and we [Pakistan Peoples Party] have always fought for democratic dispensation”. He was referring to PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari who spent 11 years in jail and Benazir, who laid down her life for the country.  “Jail is our second home, we aren’t afraid of it,” he boasted.



Protest

A protest was also held outside the assembly against the SHO of the Shah Latif Town police station. The protesters held PPP flags, banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the local police for demolishing Dur Mohammad Jatoi Goth. “We have lived there for years but the SHO and land mafia want to get our village vacated and sell the land to a builder,” accused a protester. Later, they attempted to stage a sit-in, but were dispersed by the police.