Pandemonium in Sindh Assembly

Opposition says LG polls rigged; PPP lawmakers claim big victory

KARACHI:

Verbal spats over allegations of rigging in the local government by-elections marred the proceedings of Sindh Assembly on Monday.

Lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and the opposition leveled serious allegations against each other.

The proceedings of the house descended into a pandemonium when Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh congratulated his party leadership and Sindh government on winning LG polls from Karachi and other districts in Sindh.

“We are very thankful to the people of Karachi who posed trust in our leadership and voted our candidates,” he said. The remarks irked the PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami MPAs who called the elections as rigged and said that the ruling party has managed the elections using its influence and government budget.

“The local government polls were not election but selection of the candidates with the help of state machinery and budget,” PTI Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Assembly Khurrum Sher Zaman said. The house then echoed with slogans against the PPP-led government.

Reacting to opposition MPAs, the treasury members also stood up and chanted slogans in favour of PPP government and termed the polls as a great triumph of the party in Karachi.

Despite many warnings and requests the members from both the sides didn’t pay any heed to deputy speaker Rehana Leghari and the uproar continued in the house.

Addressing Zaman she said, “This is a question and answer session. Please ask the supplementary questions and don’t deliver political speech here.” Zaman called the deputy speaker as partisan and said, “you are deputy speaker of the House and not supposed to be the worker of a political party.”

He was of the view that PPP would not be able to bring its mayor even after rigging the polls.

Mutahida Majlis Amal (MMA) MPA Abdul Rashid, who belongs to Jamaat-e-Islami, said that his party had secured majority votes, but elections were managed under a plan.

Responding to him, Imtiaz Shaikh said that the people of Karachi have rejected those who failed to deliver.

“The election results prove acknowledgement of the PPP’s performance in transport, health and education sectors. We are also committed to bringing inflation down,” he said adding that Sindh government now plans to generate electricity from wind after its successful experience of the Thar coal power project.

Sharing the upcoming plans of Sindh government, he said that it is going to solarise all prisons of Sindh. “We have devised a plan to solarize around 0.2 million houses by 2024,” he said.

Zaman while criticising Shaikh’s remarks said, “you people generate the electricity and PTI reduces its rates.” During the session, the members drew the attention of the house towards public interest issues by moving call attention notices.

Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) MPA Nand Kumar Goklani asked Sindh minister about progress on rebuilding the millions of houses that collapsed in floods last year.

“During the floods, around three million houses were damaged and crops standing over eight million acres were washed away. I want to know how incentives have been given to growers by providing seed and fertilizer subsidy and what happened to government plan to rebuild the houses of the poor people,” he said adding that despite tall claims of the government officials, no proper survey of the flood-hit areas is conducted.

He added that Sindh government had announced Rs0.3 million for each family who lost their house promising that it would build around two million houses by the end of the year.

“Nothing has been done so far. The growers are still waiting for Rs5,000 subsidy on their damaged crops,” he said.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that the provincial government has made all the arrangements and the issue will be resolved soon. “We have conducted the survey in all the districts that were affected by floods. We are committed to build the houses and this process will be done in three to four months,” he said.

Later, the house was adjourned till Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2023.