The Sindh Assembly session on Tuesday witnessed a heated debate when a PML-Functional-backed adjournment motion against the fresh spate of targeted killings in Karachi criticised the government in failing to control the law and order situation.
with the ruling PPP’s lawmakers termed Marvi Rashidi’s move as “politically motivated”, the Sindh government coalition partners split over the adjournment motion which termed the killings a “conspiracy hatched to tarnish Pakistan’s international image by spreading anarchy in the region”.
“Since the transition to democracy in Pakistan in 2008, Pakistan largest city and economic capital Karachi is in constant shadows of target killing… It is quite obvious that government’s writ is challenged by some handful miscreant, who the government has failed to control,” the motion read.
The motion attracted a soft-worded argument between the coalition partners, with MQM’s Raza Haroon saying the lawmakers in Sindh Assembly were representatives of the entire province and only Karachi must not be singled out in terms of law and order.
Backed by Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, the MQM legislator said that issues related to law and order in other districts of the Sindh should also be discussed in the house.
Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo differed saying the issue of targeted killings was totally different from the general law and order situation in the rest of the province.
However, Haq said the PML-F despite being a part of the coalition government in Sindh is only interested in political point-scoring.
He warned the PML-F against raising such objections against the coalition government of which the party itself was a part.
Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro said the Supreme Court had already taken a suo motu of the targeted killings with the home minister also having previously briefed the house on the issue.
He also requested the media to distinguish the varying motives of killings in the violence-hit city.
Terming targeted killings a burning issue, Wasan said the presence of a bunch of political parties in the house warrants a two-day discussion on the issue.
While Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah drew the speaker towards the Rules of Procedures on the admissibility of an adjournment motion, Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri said the house and not the motion was mandated to conclude whether or not the government had failed to control the targeted killings.
On this, Rashidi took the floor and said that if Marri wanted her to say the government had succeeded, she would “not have brought the adjournment motion”.
Finally, the motion was vetoed with a majority vote by the PPP-dominated house which, however, adopted another motion, tabled by the law minister, calling for holding a dedicated sitting on Thursday, April 26, on the law and order situation in the province.
Other proceedings of the day marked the introduction of a private bill tilted “The Protection of Religious Minorities Bill 2012” tabled by minority lawmaker, Saleem Khursheed Khokhar.
Also passed unanimously was a joint condolence resolution presented by PPP’s Mujadid Isran and MQM’s Shoaib Bukhari to express grief and sorrow over the tragic Bhoja Airline crash.
The Assembly would meet again on Thursday at 9:30am.
Shazia Marri flays non-paying media houses
Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri expressed grave concern on Tuesday over the non-payment of salaries to journalists by some media houses.
Talking on a point of order during the Sindh Assembly sitting, Marri was critical of the media persons’ retrenchments by the owners of a television channel.
Raising concern over the non-payment of salaries by some media outlets to their staffers, the minister criticised a leading media group for firing some 90 staffers in the latest downsizing spell.
Alleging the group for maligning Pakistan’s image on its television channel, Marri urged its management to take care of its workers.
She also flayed some media groups for not implementing the new wage board award, saying that the government was putting in efforts to press the media houses to ensure the economic and life security of working journalists.
Marri recalled that a cameraman of a private Sindhi TV channel was abducted and released the other night, but there was an issue of case registration against the accused, adding the government would fully support the journalist.
Sharjeel Memon blasts ‘judicial conspiracies’
Former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon smells a conspiracy being hatched against the PPP-led coalition government by implicating Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s sons in “fake cases”.
“A conspiracy is being hatched by those wanting to pressurise the premier to write a letter to the Swiss government against President Asif Zardari,” he claimed during his full-throated speech at the Sindh Assembly on a point of order.
The PPP lawmaker said the Chief Justice of Pakistan was singling out the president’s case amongst other 8,000 NRO beneficiaries. “These judges have taken oath under the PCO,” he added.
Even Speaker Nisar Khuhro’s repeated attempts could not stop Memon’s outburst, as he kept on blasting the “conspirators”, who after 20 years want to remove the name of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif from the Mehran Bank scandal.
He feared that these forces would ultimately hand Sharif a clean chit.
The former information minister wondered as to why the chief justice had not taken suo motu notice of Akbar Bugti’s killing, but had taken notice of actress Atiqa Odho carrying two liquor bottles.
