National Assembly session: MQM seeks to unseat Khursheed Shah

Party’s MNAs stage walkout from the session; call for new provinces

ISLAMABAD:

While lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its estranged ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), fought a verbal duel on the floor of the National Assembly on Monday, the MQM moved to unseat opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, who belongs to the PPP.

The MQM pulled out of the PPP-led coalition government in Sindh on Sunday over Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s tirade against Altaf Hussain during his speech at the October 18 rally in Karachi. The MQM ministers and advisers submitted their resignations on Monday – the day when the party’s lawmakers staged a walkout from the National Assembly and boycotted the Sindh Assembly session.

Speaking on a point of order in the lower house of parliament, MQM MNA Rasheed Godel said that some people in Pakistan had received properties from their colonial masters for their services and now they consider Pakistan as their fiefdom.



“During the last six decades, the poor have been deprived of education, health and other facilities by these feudal lords,” he said in a scathing criticism directed at the PPP. “Those who have given [the people of Pakistan] nothing but the hollow slogan of Roti, Kapra aur Makan [bread, clothing and shelter] are talking about the rights of the poor.”

MNA Godel said that new administrative units were created in every country in proportion to the growth in population and Pakistan should be no exception as the country’s population has increased manifold since 1947. “Sindh is not someone’s personal property,” he added.

He questioned why the international migration laws were not applied on the migrants from India in 1947 who were not given 70% properties of the Hindus who had migrated to India.

Subsequently, the MQM lawmakers staged a walkout from the house in protest at what Godel called the use of abusive language against the ‘Mohajirs’ by the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah. However, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab persuaded them to rejoin the session.



A verbal duel ensued again when PPP MNA Abdul Sattar Bachani condemned Godel’s statement, saying that the Sindhi elders had passed a historical resolution in favour of Pakistan from the Sindh Assembly. “Why these people call themselves Mohajirs and why not Pakistanis even more than 60 years after the partition,” he said, adding that the term ‘Mohajir’ suits the people who are temporally settled in an area.

“These people [MQM] have held Karachi hostage for the last 20 years through rigged elections and I suggest a fresh census and delimitation of constituencies in Karachi be held to control electoral fraud in the city,’ he said.

Bachani’s remarks further angered the MQM lawmakers who exchanged harsh words with the PPP members. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq intervened to bring the situation under control.

After the session, the MQM submitted two resolutions in the National Assembly Secretariat, seeking removal of opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah as well as new administrative units in the country, including in Sindh.

The first resolution says that since Shah has lost the confidence of the majority of the opposition members and parties he should be unseated. In the second resolution, the MQM contended that in view of the manifold increase in the population, more provinces should be made in the country, including in Sindh, on an administrative basis.

Sindh Assembly boycott

MQM legislators also boycotted the Sindh Assembly session on Monday after they requested the speaker for allotment of opposition benches. The request, which was approved by the MQM parliamentary committee, was submitted by deputy parliamentary leader Khwaja Izharul Hasan.

Hasan said the MQM had also sent the resignations of its two provincial ministers and three advisers to the governor and chief minister of Sindh. According to the speaker, the MQM request has been sent to the assembly secretariat for further action.

Earlier, the MQM deputy parliamentary leader said that their forefathers had sacrificed everything for Pakistan but unfortunately people used abusive language against ‘Mohajirs’.  “People cannot imagine how these comments have hurt our community,” he said referring to the controversial remarks of Khursheed Shah for which he has already apologised.

Pakistan not to ‘tolerate aggression’

Federal Minister for States and Frontier Region (Safron) Lt General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch has said Pakistan is a nuclear state and India should not be mistaken that all its aggressions along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary (WB) will be taken silently.

Baloch was giving a policy statement on the floor of the National Assembly on the Indian ceasefire violations, due to which 13 Pakistani citizens have died and 51 sustained injuries. A motion was moved in the lower house to debate on the issue.

“We, as a nuclear country, have protected our capability in quite a responsible way and if India thinks that Pakistan will take the aggression silently then it will be its misunderstanding,” he said, adding that a country did not develop a capability for defence to keep it in the cold storage.

However, he clarified that it did not mean that he was conveying any threatening message to anyone. “But we will not allow our innocent people to be a target of aggression from across the border,” he added.

Resolution for Malala

The house also passed a unanimous resolution felicitating Malala Yousufzai on winning Nobel Peace Prize.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2014.