Forget budget, Sindh lawmakers refuse to budge from hurling insults

Opposition walks out of assembly for not being allowed to speak about street crimes

KARACHI: An alarming increase in street crimes and daily reports of children's kidnappings in Karachi failed to impress the speaker of the Sindh Assembly, who refused to allow the opposition members to speak on the issue. Subsequently, the joint opposition staged a token walkout from the assembly, only to return after a few minutes.

As the session started with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair at around 10:40am, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Kanwar Naveed Jameel requested the speaker for time to speak on the issues faced by the citizens of Karachi. "Street crimes and the increasing frequency in incidents of kidnappings have created panic among the people," said Jameel. "We want to speak on this issue."



The speaker, however, was having none of it. "This is a budget session," he said. "The rules don't allow us to speak on other issues."

This seemed to irk the other opposition members who joined in with Jameel to insist that the issue be taken up by the House. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Firdous Shamim Naqvi and Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) Hasnain Mirza voiced their concerns on not being allowed to speak on the issue before walking out with the remaining members of the joint opposition.

Speaking to the media outside, Naqvi said, "Every day, children are being kidnapped and street crimes are increasing with each passing day, but the government is not allowing us to speak on this issue."

For his part, Jameel said that the law and order situation was precarious in the whole province, while the government was minting money. "In the name of budget, they have bungled billions of rupees," he lamented.

Mirza complained that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was harassing opponents in the province through state machinery. Nand Kumar Goklani brought up the case of a Hindu girl, Virsha, who had been kidnapped recently. "A 14-year-old Hindu girl has been kidnapped from Tando Allahyar, but no one is listening to us."

They finally went back to the session, only to threaten a walkout again over remarks by a PPP lawmaker. The uproar started again after PPP MPA Parveen Bashir Qaimkhani launched a tirade against the opposition members, calling them "lotas" and "traitors".

In response to GDA MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi's speech in which he had blamed PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari for the sugarcane crisis in the province, Qaimkhani said, "Jatoi has mentioned the name of our leader in this assembly, but I want to expose the character of his party and his family."

According to Qaimkhani, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was languishing in jail and later sent to the gallows, Arif's father, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi had left the country and tied the knot with a foreign woman. "The people, with the passage of time, have shifted their loyalties. They sided with General Zia, then Musharraf, then Nawaz Sharif. Now they have shifted their loyalties to Imran Khan," she remarked.

For all intents and purposes, Qaimkhani may have been delivering the speech in a political jalsa (public gathering). She started off with praises for the PPP leaders, including Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Faryal Talpur, for carrying forward the founder's mission.

"Dosto..." she started off. "The opposition members from Sanghar are criticising our government. I suggest them to compare the new and old Sanghar where the PPP has laid down a network of roads."

Referring to GDA MPA Waryam Faqir - an influential Khalifas (Caliph) of Hur Jamaat - she said people in his constituency told their young ones, "So jao warna Waryam Faqir aajaega," (Go to sleep, otherwise Waryaam Faqir will come here)".  Such was the terror of the Hur Jamat, especially Waryam Faqir, and the PPP had now ended their hegemony.



The opposition members belonging to GDA protested the remarks against Waryam Faqir. Hasnain Mirza, Nusrat Seher Abbasi, Nand Kumar Goklhani, Rafique Banghan and some MQM and PTI members stood up from their chairs and protested Qaimkhani's remarks in the house. "She should tender an apology and these words must be expunged from the proceedings," demanded Seher, while protesting in front of the speaker's dais.

Deputy speaker Rehana Leghari who was now chairing the session, attempted to calm the situation, requesting the treasury and opposition members to take their seats, but Qaimkhani refused to budge. "I will not sit down. They have criticised our leadership. Now it is their turn to listen us."

To this, Firdous Shamim Naqvi said, "PPP members are criticising those lawmakers who are not present in the House. Let the concerned members come in, then criticise them." On the speaker's orders, Qaimkhani winded up her speech and the opposition members went back to their seats.

RO plants and maintenance

PTI MPA Jamal Siddiqui, in his speech, raised the issue of RO Plants in Tharparkar district. Referring to a report of the judicial commission on water and sanitation, he said, "Around 19 RO plants were installed in different areas of Thar at an estimated cost of Rs1 billion, while the government has spent Rs2 billion in two years [2014 to 2016] on their maintenance." He added that the contract for the said RO plants was given to one company - Pak-Oasis - which has close links to an influential leader of the PPP.

MQM's Naeem Siddiqui drew the attention of the House toward the dilapidated condition of roads and infrastructure in SITE, Kotri. "The provincial government has paid no attention to resolve the issues of industrial areas in Sindh."

Dams and illegal immigrants

PPP's Owais Qadir Shah, in his speech, opposed the idea of building dams in the country, suggesting instead to start conserving water, instead of spending billions of dollars on controversial dams. "Prime Minister Imran Khan, without taking Sindh into confidence, has announced to grant nationality to Afghans and Bangalis. Sindh is not orphaned land. We will not let him implement this in our province," he said.

Shah, who hails from Sukkur, also criticised the MQM lawmakers for their silence on water issues. "If dams are built, Karachi will equally suffer from water shortage. I am amazed to see the MQM's lawmakers nodding their heads in support of dams," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2018.