Altercations mar PA session yet again

Barbs fly as shortage of ARVs brought up

KARACHI:

Chaos reigned in the Sindh Assembly once again on Friday with lawmakers on either side of the aisle exchanging heated words and hurling accusations at each other. Barbs flew at the very outset of the session when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurram Sher Zaman requested Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to recite a prayer for a two-year-old girl, who died in Jamshoro district due to the non-availability of anti-rabies vaccine (ARV).

"It looks as if nowadays [it is] dogs ruling in Sindh," said Zaman, referring to the incident, which occurred in Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. Reacting to Zaman's jibe, Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Mukesh Kumar Chawla turned to the Speaker and requested that Zaman be asked to "reign in his tongue." This was followed by squabbling and chest-thumping in the house with neither the treasury nor opposition lawmakers paying any heed to the Speaker's calls for decorum. "You are lawmakers not children. Please take your seats and maintain decorum in the house" chided Durrani. He warned that the session would be adjourned if the MPAs were not interested in continuing the proceedings.

But the quarreling lawmakers resorted to pushing each other till other PPP and PTI members of assembly intervened and the altercation subsided. After a brief lull the Speaker resumed the proceedings and Zaman was given the floor to continue his speech. "Please ask Chawla to close the spurious wine shops in the province," said Zaman. His remark led to another uproar in the house with Chawla, the Sindh excise, taxation and narcotics control minister, retorting, "You should stop supplying contaminated food in your restaurant." Verbal attacks from either sides of the aisle continued to mar the proceedings as they reached the question and answers session.

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When Sindh Information Science and Technology Minister Taimur Talpur repeatedly compared his department's performance with its counterpart in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the PTI leads the provincial government, sprinkling his speech with taunts at the ruling party, PTI's Saeed Afridi urged the Speaker to restrain the provincial minister. The minister should avoid using slurs like "youthia" and "selectors" and pay attention to the performance of his own department, said Afridi, addressing Durrani. "I want to ask him if his department has ever developed any portal where the common man can lodge complaints against various government departments."

The Sindh minister did not respond to Afridi's remark. As the question and answers progressed, PTI MPA Adeeba Hassan raised the matter of wheat hoarding, which she said has led to the increase of wheat prices in the province. Responding to her concern, Sindh Food Minister Hari Ram assured that his department would take action against hoarders.

The session was later adjourned till Monday. Speaking to the media after the assembly proceedings, lawmakers of both the treasury and opposition benches blamed the other for the commotion in the house. Zaman was drawing the house's attention towards the severe shortage of ARVs in the province and that resulted in the PPP ministers misbehaving, said PTI MPA Raja Azhar. "[They] lost their temper like stray dogs," he spat. Talpur, on the other hand, was of the view that the PTI lawmakers were staging a drama. "They are selected MPAs and don't know the norms of parliamentary politics."