Sindh Assembly passes amendment in sales tax bill amid opposition’s uproar

Hindu Marriage Act also passed unanimously

Amidst angry slogans from the opposition benches of “Go Corruption Go!” the Sindh Assembly passed an amendment bill on Monday.

As per details, Senior Minister for Education and Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Ahmed Khuhro tabled the Govt Bill 042/2015 The Sindh Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill 2015 for consideration. However, the MQM members raised strong objection to it. They said these taxes are mostly collected from the urban areas of Sindh and the citizens of these areas should not be burdened under more taxes. They said that billions of rupees generated from the Sindh province go to the pockets of the corruption mafia, instead of being spent for the betterment of the cities and towns of Sindh. They alleged that the PPPP government had not only neglected Karachi and Hyderabad but even failed to provide proper civic facilities in Larkana and Khairpur. They said the taxpayers’ money was being wasted for the benefit of the corrupt elements.

However, the treasury side rejected these allegations of corruption and said that the amendment bill was not aimed to levy a new tax. They said that MQM was also the part of government in the previous periods, why did it fail to improve the condition of Karachi and other cities of Sindh? They said the opposition is going for political point scoring. However, when despite the objections of the opposition, the minister for parliamentary affairs tabled the bill for consideration the opposition members stood on their seats and raised slogans of “Go Corruption Go!” They tore down the copies of the agenda of the day. However, the House adopted the bill amid their protest. After passing of the bill the speaker adjourned the House immediately.

Earlier, the treasury side rejecting the request of the opposition to send the Govt Bill 5/2016 – The Sindh Hindus Marriage Bill 2016 to the standing committees tabled it for immediate consideration and after a long debate it was passed by the House unanimously. The opposition members raised objection that Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains were wrongly made a part of Hindu religion in the definition of “Hindu”. They said the Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains would strongly object to this and may take the matter to court. However, on an amendment brought by MQM parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed the word Buddhists was omitted. On another amendment by Poonjo Bheel of MQM, the penalty of Rs 10,000 proposed in the bill for non-registration of marriages was also omitted. However, the bill was passed with its questionable definition of “Hindu” which included Sikhs and Jains.

The opposition members while debating on the bill said that if the PPPP, MQM and other political parties had objection on the use of word “minority”, then why were there “minority wings” in these parties? They suggested the PPPP, MQM, PML-F and other parties to abolish minority wings from their parties. They also suggested to end special seats for minorities and women and also disbanding the ministry for minority affairs. They said equal rights should be given to women belonging to non-Muslim communities and they should be given share from ancestral property, as enjoyed by the Muslim females.

During question hour, MQM MPA Zaffar Ahmad Kamali staged walk out for 10 minutes when he found the answer of the health minister to his supplementary question unsatisfactory.

Privilege Motion 12/2016 and Adjournment Motion 10/2016 could not be taken as their movers were absent.

Four CANs, 106, 76, 95 and 24 were raised and responded by the respective ministers. The CAN 107 was not taken, as the mover was not present.

The speaker adjourned the House till Tuesday, Feb 16 at 10:00AM.