Coalition’s fissures over MQM bill grow wider

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition in the Sindh Assembly (SA) was divided on Monday over the 20th Constitutional Amendment tabled by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the National Assembly for the creation of new provinces in the country, as the lawmakers from the parliamentary parties other than the PPP and the MQM strongly resisted the amendment. The day saw the provincial legislature being called to order by SA Speaker Nisar Khuhro at 1pm after a three-hour delay because of a long pre-session meeting between the coalition partners, including the PPP, the MQM and the National People’s Party (NPP).
With the participants keeping mum on the agenda of the meeting, subsequent assembly proceedings, however, proved that the PPP preferred the MQM over the NPP and others who wanted to table a resolution calling for the withdrawal of the MQM-backed constitutional move in the lower house. The lawmakers from the NPP, the Awami National Party (ANP), the Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-Arbab and the PML-Quaid staged a walkout from the House when the speaker disallowed NPP’s Masroor Jatoi to table his resolution carrying what Jatoi and PML-Functional’s Jam Madad Ali later told the media were signatures of at least 50 lawmakers belonging to the PPP, the NPP, the ANP, the PML-F and the PML-Q.
Until Friday, the resolution carried the signatures of former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Sindh Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Jam Tamachi Unnar, Munawar Ali Abbasi, Imran Nazir Leghari, Mir Muhammad Hasan Talpur, Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, Agha Taimur Talpur, Imdad Pitafi, Fayaz Butt, Dr Sikandar Shoro, Anwar Khan Maher and Sadiq Memon of the PPP, Ghalib Domki of the PML-Q, Nusrat Saher Abbasi of the PML-F, Amir Nawab Khan of the ANP, and Arif Jatoi and Masroor Jatoi of the NPP.
Those who signed the draft on Monday included Abdul Razzak Rahimoon of the PML-A, Rana Abdul Sattar of the PML-F, Shaharyar Maher of the PML-Q, and Dr Abdul Sattar Rajpar, Naeem Kharal, Kulsoom Chandio, Pitanbar Sewani, Rukhsana Shah, Shama Mithani, Humera Alwani, Rainaz Bozdar, Tariq Masood Arain, Muhammad Usman Jalbani and Syed Javed Hussain Shah of the PPP.
“Having won the support of at least 50 members, we expect more signatures on the resolution on Thursday,” Masroor Jatoi and Jam Madad Ali told a post-session briefing.
The NPP-backed out-of-turn resolution rejects any changes to Article 239(4) of the constitution that links territorial disintegration of the provinces to the approval of two-thirds majority in the provincial assembly concerned.
Also, the NPP submitted an adjournment motion to the SA secretary on Monday that said: “If this clause [Article 239(4)] is deleted, it will be a dire threat to the integrity of our beloved Sindh and will facilitate its future break-up by non-Sindhis sitting in the National Assembly and Senate in Islamabad without the say of the people of Sindh.”
The PPP sees the move differently as Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, in a full-throated speech, blasted the “so-called Tabdeeli Pasands and Sindhi nationalists” for scoring political mileage and making newspaper headlines.
NPP’s Masroor Jatoi and Arif Jatoi were on their feet when Soomro, amid ear-splitting desk-thumping, declared, “We need no certificate of Sindhi nationalism from anyone.”
Throughout the sitting, the NPP lawmakers kept rising to ask for the chair’s permission to table the resolution, but in vain.
Unshaken by Jatoi’s repeated requests, the speaker said he, according to the SA’s Rules of Procedure, must take up items on the orders of the day.
Following this, lawmakers from the NPP, the ANP, the PML-A and the PML-Q staged a walkout from the assembly.
Previously, PPP legislator Imran Nazir Leghari had also boycotted the session after Leader of the House/Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had opposed the admissibility of his adjournment motion, saying that the move was “ambiguous” and “against the spirit of the adjournment motion”. The speaker had then disposed of the motion.
Earlier, MQM lawmakers Faisal Sabzwari and Sardar Ahmed were seen huddling with Soomro and Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah as soon as the speaker called the house to order.
After Soomro’s speech, MQM parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed rose to endorse the law minister’s statement, saying that majority of the people in Sindh had opted to come to the province “to live and die in Sindh”.
Quoting MQM chief Altaf Hussain, he said the party and all the coalition partners were determined to protect the “united integrity” of Sindh.
This brought the assembly proceedings to an end, with the chair calling it a day until 10:00 am on Thursday.
Earlier, on a request, Soomro laid before the house a report pertaining to the appropriation of accounts of the Sindh Forest Department in 2009-10. The report was referred to the PAC for consideration.
Introducing the Indus University Bill-2011, Soomro requested and received the consideration of a government amendment bill on the establishment of the office of the ombudsman in Sindh deferred until the next sitting to be held on Thursday. The question hour that commenced at 1:10 pm could not last longer than 25 minutes, as most questions were from the MQM lawmakers who had not arrived in the house until then.