KARACHI:
The Sindh Assembly session on Monday turned out to be stormy as legislators belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) accused each other of destroying the province, and the MQM's desicion to boycott the day's proceedings.
The session follows a rough weekend when party leaders blamed each other of ruining Karachi and the MQM formally parted ways with the PPP-led Sindh government just six months after joining it earlier this year.
It was expected that Monday's assembly session would be stormy and it became intense as party leaders started accusing each other of destroying the province. The MQM decided that they would boycott the day's proceedings.
The session started with the speaker, Agha Siraj Durrani, in his chair by 12pm - this is when MQM's parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed stood up. "For quite some time now, a movement has started against our party and chief Altaf Bhai," he said. "Now, the PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is criticising him [Hussain] directly and this has hurt thousands of our workers and supporters." He added that despite their differences, such language should not be used against leaders of political parties.
Ahmed claimed that due to the campaign against their party chief, the MQM's coordination committee had decided to break the coalition. He said that they had decided to sit in the opposition and requested the speaker allot them opposition benches the session.
The speaker, Agha Siraj Durrani, acknowledged the receipt of the MQM's application and assured that it would go through the required process.
While all of this was going on, MQM's deputy parliamentary leader Khwaja Izharul Hassan also sought the speaker's permission to speak. "I want to brief this House about what prompted us to sit in the opposition," he said. "Our forefathers have sacrificed everything for this country but unfortunately people use abusive language towards the Muhajirs," he added, while referring to the statement made by PPP's Khursheed Shah.
"People cannot imagine how these comments have hurt our community," he said. "Altaf Bhai has asked us to show tolerance but this is humiliating."
The MPA invited people to visit Sindh Ssecretariat to show that there were hardly any Urdu-speaking officers there. He claimed that departments, such as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the Sindh Building Authority, have turned into offices where lower cadre jobs were being sold at a throughway prices.
"Earlier, it was we were promised that people living in Karachi would be given a priority in various departments of the city but this never happened," he said. "Merit is being violated in the jobs from grade 1 to 15 and then Bilawal criticises our leader and says that we have ruined Karachi. Can you tell us of one UC in rural Sindh which you have developed?" He added this was why the party would not be a part of the provincial government and sit on the opposition benches instead. The party then walked out and boycotted the rest of the session.
Pointing fingers
Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the PPP believed in reconciliation but the MQM. While referring to some statements made by Altaf Hussain, Memon said that the party had taken matters a step further by using derogatory language against Sindhi and Punjabis.
"The MQM has set a new precedent in everything," he said. "They have ruined the KMC and KWSB by inducting excessive employees." He added that most of the budget was being consumed by salaries for employees who don't even work.
The chief minster counted a number of officers who he said were Urdu-speaking and from Karachi. He said that the KMC administrator, commissioner, several vice-chancellors of public universities were all from Karachi.
MQM says no more talks with the PPP
A day after they decided to quit the Sindh government, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has said it will not engage in any talks with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) anymore.
MQM's Rabita Committee leader Wasay Jalil told The Express Tribune that they will not hold any discussions with the PPP on any issue. "The PPP has always sabotaged the talks with us, and MQM has always, directly or indirectly, been victimised." Jalil said that there would be no negotiations with the PPP even if former interior minister Rehman Malik, who in the past had settled issues between the two parties, gets involved.
Earlier in the day, five lawmakers of the MQM handed over their resignations to the governor. The minister for industries and commerce, Rauf Siddiqui, and health minister Sagheer Ahmed submitted their resignations to Dr Ishratul Ebad.
Meanwhile, Faisal Sabzwari, the CM's adviser on youth affairs, Adil Siddiqui, adviser on sports, and special assistant to the chief minister on Auqaf, Abdul Haseeb, submitted they resignations to the Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah.
Observers say that if the rift between the PPP and the MQM deepens, the party may ask Governor Ishratul Ebad to resign.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
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A bully will remain a bully; whether he is collecting bhatta on streets or is in a legislative hall!
Please stop it already. PPP-MQM are "bhai Bhai" Just like TuQ and IK, Just like Nawaz and Shahbaz. Just like Zardari and Tappi. but Altaf Bhai is everyone's "Uncle"