Uproar in Sindh Assembly on MPA’s arrest

Yet another session of the Sindh Assembly was marred by uproar as a protest by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers against the arrest of their Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Arsalan Taj Ghumman ended in a walkout. Ghumman, who is also the head of PTI Karachi chapter, was taken into custody by Karachi police three days ago.

The House echoed with anti-government slogans with PTI members tearing the agenda. They also gathered in front of the podium of Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani while demanding the opportunity to speak on the issue of the arrested MPA and criticised the speaker for ignoring their request to issue his production order.

The pandemonium started when Speaker Durrani took up the agenda despite PTI MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman’s repeated requests to speak on Taj's arrest. The speaker initially assured him that he would get time to speak once the agenda was taken care of.

Upon this, the PTI MPAs sat down and the proceedings started with a QnA session of the education department. After the QnA ended, Zaman again stood up and sought the time and raised the issue.

The speaker asked him to wait, saying it was the pre-budget session and members wanted to discuss it. But Zaman continued his speech on the issue even though his mic was switched off.

He said that Karachi police barged into the MPA’s residence at 4am and “arrested him as if he was wanted by the police in a terrorism or criminal case”. He said the raiding party didn’t have women. He urged that the speaker issue his production orders must be issued so that he can attend the session.

Upon being ignored, PTI MPAs started protesting and insisting that the arrested MPA be produced in the House.

“He has hardly spent a week in the jail and you are creating fuss here,” the speaker told the MPAs while saying that he was reviewing the application for the production order and would make the decision accordingly. PTI MPAs, however, continued the protest while calling for the lawmaker’s release.

Amid the uproar the speaker adjourned the session till Wednesday (today).

Ghost teachers

Earlier, during the Question Hour, Minister for Education Sardar Shah said that as many as 1,324 teachers were removed from services for remaining absent for three consecutive months.

He said that there were over 56,000 ‘habitual absentee’ teachers who attended schools once or twice a month, adding that 885 were given minor penalties such as censure and warning and stopping of the increment.

To a supplementary question, he said that 50 per cent students were out of schools as around 19,000 schools had been completely devastated during the floods in 2022.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2023.