Opposition holds mock session to protest adjournment of PA session

Lawmakers of three opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday held on the steps of the old assembly building a meeting which they described as a ‘mock assembly session’ in protest against the speaker’s decision to delay the commencement of their requisitioned session of the house till June 3.

Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani had earlier announced convening a session of the assembly on May 20 on the requisition of the opposition to discuss the coronavirus situation in the province, but later the speaker adjourned the commencement of the session till June 3.

The opposition legislators belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), and the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) took part in the meeting held on the steps of the old assembly building and called it a ‘mock assembly session’.

MQM-Pakistan lawmaker Muhammad Hussain Khan chaired the meeting. Later, the opposition legislators while holding placards also held a protest against the Sindh government.

Taking part in the ‘mock assembly session’, the opposition legislators castigated the performance of the Sindh government, alleging that corruption had become rampant in the budgetary affairs of the province.

They said the Sindh Assembly speaker had failed to fulfil his constitutional obligation to convene the assembly session in a timely fashion after a proper requisition had been filed by the opposition lawmakers for the purpose. They alleged that the conduct of the speaker had become partial in this regard to give undue favour to the ruling party in the province.

They said the speaker’s act to adjourn the commencement of the session was unlawful. The opposition legislators said they would strongly protest on June 3 when the session of the assembly would begin.

They alleged that corruption had been committed in the relief operation launched by the Sindh government during the coronavirus emergency as poor people in the province didn’t get any subsistence from the provincial authorities during the lockdown.

Sindh Assembly opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi, who belongs to the PTI, said the policy of the Sindh government against the coronavirus emergency had been in sharp contrast to the strategy being followed by the other three provinces.

MQM leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel said the opposition parties had decided to hold their own session to protect the interests of the province as “vicious efforts are under way to ruin the Sindh’s economy”.

He said they fully believed in the unity of the nation. He said the opposition parties in the province were being compelled to take to the streets against the acts of Sindh government. “The situation should not worsen to the extent that we are compelled to lay a siege of the Chief Minister House,” said the MQM’s legislator.

GDA’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi said her remarks during the regular sessions of the assembly had always been cut short but on the present-day she had complete freedom of speech.

She alleged that the Sindh government had run away from the assembly on the present-day as it had always used to do.

She said the Sindh government had failed to adopt an effective strategy to tackle the coronavirus emergency in the province.

The GDA’s lawmaker said that “faulty coronavirus testing” had been conducted in the Pir Jo Goth “which is the native village of Pir Sahib Pagara”.

She said a close relative of the Sindh CM who had died from coronavirus was laid to rest with due respect and dignity while no such protocols were followed in the case of other victims of COVID-19 in the province.

She said the conduct of the speaker of the provincial assembly had been in the favour of the ruling party.

MQM’s Khawaja Izharul Hassan said the Sindh Bank would be of no use at all if it could not offer loans to small traders in the province. He said the Sindh Bank was being run in a manner as if it had become a personal property of the rulers of the province.

He lamented that the Sindh government had “failed to announce any provincial Finance Commission’s award for the last several years”.

PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh said the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party had been in the habit of convening the session of the assembly to issue production orders of its leaders facing corruption charges. “But the ruling party adjourned the session when it was being held to discuss genuine public issues,” he said.