The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) may find it hard to garner support on the creation of new provinces in the country, as the majority of Sindh Assembly lawmakers, including from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), seemed to oppose the move in the legislative house on Friday terming it “anti-Sindh”.
On January 17, MQM leader Waseem Akhtar had tabled the 20th constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly seeking creation of new provinces, Seraiki in Punjab and Hazara in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
During the Sindh Assembly session on Friday, National People’s Party (NPP) member Arif Mustafa Jatoi attempted to table an out-of-turn resolution, rejecting any amendments to Article 239 (4) of the Constitution, which links territorial disintegration of the federating units with the approval of two-thirds majority in the provincial legislature concerned.
“This assembly recommends to the Sindh government to inform the federal government, National Assembly and other federal units that it is opposed to any amendments to Article 2389 (4), which was specially included in the constitution by its creators and signatories, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Qaim Ali Shah, Hakim Ali Zardari, Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talib-ul-Mola, Atta Muhammad Marri and Abdul Hafiz Pirzada, to give strong constitutional protection to the borders of Sindh. Any steps which may facilitate the future break up of Sindh will never be allowed either by this assembly or the people of Sindh,” read the resolution.
However, Speaker Nisar Khuhro disallowed Jatoi from tabling the draft, hinting that the government was itself considering tabling a resolution in this regard.
“It’s a dangerous thing for Sindh,” Jatoi exclaimed, adding that the proposed MQM-backed constitutional amendment would allow the federation to decide the fate of provinces unilaterally.
“Anyone sitting in the centre and claiming to have a heavy mandate from anywhere in the country will be able to divide Sindh [in the future],” the NPP lawmaker explained to Pakistan Today.
Attracting support from lawmakers belonging to all the parliamentary parties in Sindh Assembly except the MQM, the resolution carries signatures of legislators from NPP, PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and its Arbab Ghulam Rahim group.
Jatoi said the subscribers of the move include PPP’s former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Public Accounts Committee chairman Jam Tamachi, Munawar Ali Abbasi, Imran Nazir Leghari, Mir Muhammad Hasan Talpur, Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, Agha Taimur Talpur, Imdad Patafi, Fayaz Butt, Dr Sikandar Shoro, Anwar Maher and Sadiq Memon; PML-Q’s Ghalib Dhomki; PML-F’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi; ANP’s Amir Nawab Khan; and NPP’s Arif and Masroor Jatoi.
Claiming to have won support of PML-Q (Arbab) leader Abdul Razzak Rahimoo, the NPP leader said that he is also in contact with the MQM. “We would meet our friends from MQM to request [them] for a withdrawal of the [constitutional] amendment proposed,” he said.
Jatoi said that around 35 to 40 members would be putting their weight behind the draft in Monday’s sitting of Sindh Assembly. “At least five members signed the resolution after I submitted it with the speaker, while others did the same in the secretary’s office later,” he said. Unsure about the draft getting passed from the provincial legislative house, he said the resolution would create a sort of “moral pressure” on the government while those belonging to the Sindh province would definitively support it.
The fate of the resolution, however, would be decided on Monday when the house meets again at 10 am.
Meanwhile, responding to queries from members during the Question Hour, Sindh Electric Power Minister Shazia Marri said a 1000MW nuclear power plant would be constructed near the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, work on which would be started this year and completed in seven years.
