The proceedings of the Sindh Assembly’s session Wednesday were marred by an unexpected pandemonium created by the treasury lawmakers who were critical of the federal government for its failure to implement the Supreme Court’s verdict in Asghar Khan’s case.
Led by Imdad Patafi, a handful of PP lawmakers protested and finally walked out of the house for not implementing the court’s decree.
“We want (Interior Minister) Rehman Malik and the federal government to implement the Supreme Court verdict in Asghar Khan Case,” declared Patafi setting a two-day deadline for his own government.
Pitafi demanded of his own government in center to make Sharif Brothers accountable for conspiring against the democracy in 1990s.
He said it was unfortunate that the court’s decision had not been implemented and those who used national wealth against the democracy were still at large. He said the court convicted the PPP prime minister while the others were allowed to visit the court frequently.
He led the walkout before surrounding the Speaker Nisar Khuhro’s rostrum along with lady lawmakers Shama Mithani and Farheen Mughal for lodging their protest against non-implementation of the court’s decision.
Listening to their hue and cry, the speaker gave ruling asking the Sindh Law Minister, Ayaz Soomro, to “write to Supreme Court that lawmakers are protesting against the non-implementation of its decision”.
Looking at the charged atmosphere, Ayaz Soomro said: “We will have to implement the court’s decision”. Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq said the funding was injected into anti-democratic move to topple the PPP government in 1990s. He appealed to the judiciary for getting its decision implemented.
The speaker said the formation of IJI through public wealth was made for stolen election. He said there had been no progress on the court’s verdict.
However, the legislators walked out of the house shortly and later joined the session.
A slight harshness hit the house proceedings when Pir Mazharul Haq was going to explain his views in reply to the MQM lawmaker, Dr Sagheer Ahmed’s question that he was misquoted by media on the Hyderabad University construction.
He said he could even build the university at Paka Qila if the MQM can evacuate the inhabited part of the city as there is no other prime location to raise construction for the academic institution there.
Dr Sagheer objected to his remarks saying it was not a tradition of the world to build universities by driving out the population. He said Pir Mazhar’s remark was a disdain. He added the MQM had already identified location in Gulshan-e-Sarmast for the institute.
Pir Mazhar, however, retracted his remarks and said he did not mean what the MQM had perceived from his remarks. He said the PPP had supported the resolution in the house to build the university in Hyderabad and he still adhered to his pledge.
The house also passed four government bills unanimously – The Sindh Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Bill 2013, The Sindh Coal Bill 2012, The Sindh Finance (Amendment) Bill 2013 and The Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Human Resource Research and Development Board Bill 2013.
On the request of Ayaz Soomro, the house deferred consideration of The Sindh Tenancy (Amendment) Bill 2013 for Thursday.