After verifying signatures, speaker forwards MQM plea for legal review

The requisition was dismissed earlier as the speaker found a few signatures were forged.

KARACHI: After having verified the signatures of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPAs, the acting speaker of Sindh Assembly, Shehla Raza, accepted the requisition on Monday to summon a session on law and order situation and discuss the calling of the army to Karachi.

The MQM’s first requisition had stated that a Sindh Assembly session be called on August 28.  The speaker, Agha Siraj Durrani, however, dismissed the MQM application on Friday, objecting that some of the signatures of MQM members were not consistent.

“After verification of the signatures, I have accepted the MQM’s application and referred it to the Sindh Assembly’s secretary to review its legal status before announcing the date for the session,” said acting speaker Raza. She said that not only the city of Karachi was affected by the deteriorating law and order situation, but the whole country had been suffering from this menace.

MQM parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed said that they had brought all the MPAs along with a new requisition, but the acting speaker had accepted their earlier plea and set aside the objections raised by Durrani. “We have high hopes that the assembly’s session will now be summoned without any delay,” he said.

Another MPA of the MQM, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, was of the view that the provincial government was not taking the issue of Karachi seriously and had been using delaying tactics in calling the session.  He said the assembly is the highest forum where lawmakers belonging to all parties should be given a chance to discuss sensitive issues.  He said that MQM’s demand to call the army in Karachi was their last resort. “We have lost hundreds of our workers in targeted killing, while extortionists have made the lives of the business community miserable. The police and Rangers have failed to deal with the criminals. In this situation, our demand to deploy the armed forces should be taken seriously,” he urged.

The MQM MPAs also submitted privilege motions asking the speaker to take action against the police officials who had prepared a list to declare MQM MPAs as suspects. “We are elected members of this house. The police officials and the Sindh government have breached our privilege, therefore, the relevant authorities should be summoned to inquire into the matter and take action against them,” said MPAs Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Rehan Zafar.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2013.