Summoning a session on violence: MQM’s request turned down

Speaker says the signatures of MQM MPAs on the application are fake.

The Sindh Assembly speaker turned down the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) demand to summon a session on the worsening law and order situation in the city and the deployment of armed forces.

MQM, the largest opposition party in the province, had submitted the requisition on August 28 with signatures of around 43 MPAs of the party. The party leaders were of view that since the provincial government had failed to control violence in Karachi, an assembly session should be called to discuss the possibility of handing over Karachi to the armed forces.

Their plea was, however, dismissed by the speaker. “I have refused to accept the MQM’s application because a few of the signatures of their MPAs did not match with the attendance register available inside the assembly,” said Agha Siraj Durrani. “I rejected the application on the grounds that the signatures were fake.”



The opposition leaders were irked by this statement and called it a biased approach. They announced that they will move another application soon. “Karachi is bleeding but it seems the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ministers have nothing to do with it,” MQM deputy parliamentary leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan. “If some signatures were not matching than the speaker would have called us to verify them. This is a lame excuse which only means they do not want to take up MQM’s requisition about an assembly session.”

After turning down the MQM application, the government itself wants to summon a session, said an official, adding that a date is being finalised in consultation with the law department.

Privilege motion

Meanwhile, opposition leader Faisal Subzwari, along with a few MPAs of his party Ashfaq Mangi and Adnan Ahmed, reached Sindh Assembly on Friday to move a privilege motion in which he claimed the government and the police have breached their privilege.



“We are members of this August House but a list has been prepared declaring us criminals,” he pointed out. “The police want to arrest a few members of this house, therefore, I request the speaker to take up our privilege motion in the upcoming session and provide us some relief.”

Subzwari said that the police and law enforcers have started victimising MQM workers in the city and this action is tantamount to the 1990s operation initiated against the MQM. Justifying his party’s demand about handing over Karachi’s control to the armed forces, he said: “This is not the first time such a demand has been made.” Several parties, including MQM chief Altaf Hussain, have given similar statements in the past, he said.

“There is nothing wrong in getting the services of our own armed forces. It is not a Nato or UN force,” he said. “If the army is called for flood and other emergencies then why is its help not sought to maintain law and order?”

The opposition leader questioned why the government failed to include the names of PPP workers in the list prepared by the police for an operation. “The PPP-led government is adopting the 1990s policy by starting an operation against the MQM but we resist this move against political victimisation at every platform.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.