The Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges, in its report on nine privilege motions referred to it by the house during the past five years, criticised Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who had “miserably failed” to appear before the committee to clarify a statement he had made to the displeasure of Sindh lawmakers.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) legislators Imran Zafar Leghari and Saleem Khursheed Khokhar had earlier moved a joint privilege motion in the Sindh Assembly against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader due to his alleged “bitter attitude regarding criticising the cultural attire of the people of Sindh” in an interview he gave on the electronic media.
“A number of notices were sent to him in person at his official address… but Chaudhry Nisar miserably failed to appear before the Privilege Committee,” the body observed in a brief summary of its five-year report made available to Pakistan Today.
The committee said the notices were served upon Chaudhry Nisar even through the speaker and the secretary of the lower house, but to no avail. Chaired by PPP’s senior lawmaker Ghulam Mujadid Isran, the committee wanted the PML-N leader to appear before it for the purpose of clarification or for satisfaction of the constitutional forum.
PPP Sindh leader Advocate Salim Zia had once appeared before the committee to represent Chaudhry Nisar in one of its meetings on the issue, but could not offer more than what the committee termed a “vague” contention regarding the absence of Chaudhry Nisar.
“The application (of Zia) was rejected by the Committee on legal as well as moral grounds,” the body said.
Despite repeated attempts of this reporter, Zia was not available to comment on the issue.
“We held 14 hearings on the issue but he (Nisar) could not gather the courage to uphold parliamentary norms by appearing before a parliamentary body,” Ghulam Mujadid Isran, chairman of the privilege committee, told Pakistan Today.
He said the PML-N leader had waged an unprovoked attack on the culture of Sindh. Isran recalled that even Zia had not directly faced the committee and had initially handed an unsigned application to the Sindh Assembly secretary. “He twice came to the secretary’s office just to place an application that we rejected,” the committee chairman said.
The PPP lawmaker said Zia’s appearance was illogical in a sense that the privilege motion was not directed at the party but at a person (Nisar).
Isran said the ball now was in the court of Sindh Assembly to which the committee had presented its final report. “The Assembly now may like to take action against him,” he added.
In its meeting held on 14th May last year, member of the privilege body namely Imran Zafar Leghari who was one of the motion’s movers, strongly condemned the attitude, derogatory words and views expressed by Chaudhry Nisar who was alleged to have bad-mouthed against cultural attire of the people of Sindh.
Leghari, in the meeting, claimed to posses all details of the press conference held by the PML-N stalwart and other relevant documentary/CD evidences to prove his point.
“The criticism on cultural attire of the people of Sindh will not be tolerated,” committee members Syed Khalid Ahmed and Moqueem Alam were quoted as saying during the meeting.
The two MQM lawmakers in Sindh Assembly, where the MQM had recently parted ways with its four-year-and-11-month-old ally, the PPP, viewed Chaudhry Nisar’s statement as an “attempt to destabilise the Federation of Pakistan”.
Mr Nisar, is it just fear or something else?
