Legislators in the Lower House of parliament on Wednesday grilled the government for thousands of out-of-turn appointments in Sindh, giving extraordinary media coverage to leaders of banned outfits, influence being exerted by the PPP, President Zardari on the upcoming polls and immigration of thousands of Hindu families to India.
The eighth sitting of the 50th session of the National Assembly opened with NA Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi in the chair.
Kundi chaired the sitting for an hour, while the remaining session was presided over by the NA speaker and the members of panel of chairpersons.
A calling attention notice about the power breakdown on the night between February 24 and 25, a motion under rule 259 regarding law and order, and the Capital University of Science and Technology Bill 2012 were deferred.
Welcoming the appointment of Engineer Shaukatullah as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, Awami National Party member Bushra Gohar hoped that the move might prove positive in improving the situation.
Pointing out that the FATA Secretariat had become a hub of corruption, she said the governor should take notice of the issue and should get recovered the millions of rupees after holding an impartial audit.
The ANP legislator pointed out that the media was paying extraordinary attention to the heads of banned outfits and these people were being invited in various programmes on almost a routine basis, demanding that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) should take strict notice of the situation.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah criticised the growing number of towers of cellular companies, saying the rays being emitted from them were hazardous for human health, but nobody seemed to regulate them.
He said he had informed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in writing that the Sindh government had imposed ban on government hiring on one hand, but on the other, thousands of people had been employed out of merit.
He said in his district, junior officers were being appointed on senior positions, President Asif Ali Zardari was trying to influence the coming polls and the PPP was involved in political victimisation of its opponents.
Shahzia Marri of the PPP flayed Shah for his remarks against the PPP and accused him of “destroying” Sanghar district.
Khawaja Saad Rafique of the PML-N expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor performance by parliament, saying in the last five years, the parliament failed to give a solid performance, and no great expectations remained from it.
Ghaus Bukhsh Mahar demanded the Sindh government issue a clarification over the statement by one of its ministers, who after the blast at Hajan Shah’s shrine, said the pre-election situation was being worsened to create no-go areas in Sindh.
MQM’s Khawaja Sohail Mansoor raised objections to the continuous absence of minister for interior, calling it an insult of the House.
Upon this Khurshid Shah assured that the minister would be called into the House.
Advocate Usman Khan stressed on developing road infrastructure in Gwadar, saying it was necessary if the government really wanted to get benefits from the strategic asset.
He also demanded the House take the nation on board over who in actual terms would benefit from the Gwadar port.
Syed Asif Husnain grilled the treasury benches over the continuous abductions, kidnappings for ransom, forced conversions and marriages of Hindu minority members, especially females, adding that such things had forced a number of families to leave for permanent residence in India.
