Speaker warns of holding completely virtual budget session if SOPs violation continues

Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani has warned that he will be left with no option other than to hold the proceedings of the current budget session of the house all virtually through video conferencing if the protesting opposition lawmakers in the PA did not observe the standard operating procedures (SOPs) against the spread of COVID-19.

The warning to his effect came on Saturday as the speaker was chairing the session of the provincial assembly that commenced general discussion on the newly presented Sindh government’s budget for the new financial year 2020-21.

He said on the occasion that he would not let the lives of the lawmakers become endangered. The provincial assembly was getting transformed into a danger zone as several of the legislators and staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus infection, he added.

Durrani said the lawmakers should not take the coronavirus epidemic as a joke as all the legislators were supposed to undergo testing for the viral disease.

He maintained that the opposition legislators had violated the SOPs in the manner they protested in the house during the budget speech of the chief minister.

Speaking on the occasion, the leader of the opposition in the house, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Firdous Shamim Naqvi, said that no discussion could be held or proposals given for such a budget that did not contain any new finance bill.

The opposition leader said that they were ready to act on all the SOPs. He acknowledged that an understanding had been reached between the opposition and treasury members in the house that the lawmakers would be allowed to attend the budget session of the house on the basis of the results of their coronavirus tests.

Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said the treasury legislators were duly following the SOPs. He added that the participation of the legislators of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in the session was in accordance with the SOPs as their presence was not more than 25 per cent.

He said a team of the Sindh health department was present in the assembly building to provide an opportunity to the legislators to get tested for the coronavirus infection.

Chawla maintained that the lawmakers who had not been screened for the viral disease should get tested for COVID-19 as no MPA would be allowed to attend the assembly without the test result. He said the opposition legislators had resorted to protest in the house in the previous sitting and several of them were not wearing masks.

Meanwhile, opposition legislators staged a symbolic walkout from the house proceedings in protest against the absence of provincial ministers in the house during the general discussion on the new budget.

Naqvi said that the provincial ministers should have attended the session through the video-link system.

The speaker observed that officials of the relevant departments were present in the house and the ministers’ absence should not be used as a pretext by the opposition for doing protest in the house. Durrani said the consistent show of such an attitude by the opposition would compel him to exercise the option of conducting virtual proceedings of the assembly.

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh said the opposition did not have any valid excuse to walk out from the house and they were doing it so to cover up their own mistakes. He also supported the idea of holding virtual proceedings of the session.

He said the opposition should not be granted any opportunity to violate the SOPs in the house.

Chawla said that up to 25 per cent of the treasury lawmakers were present in the house as per the SOPs and the absence of provincial ministers was not a valid excuse for the opposition to stage a walkout.

Meanwhile, taking part in the general discussion, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Rashid Khilji said the people of both the urban and rural parts of Sindh had received no benefits from the provincial budget.

He said the development projects envisaged in the successive provincial budgets were not actualised. Residents of Karachi and Hyderabad had been without supply of potable water and the industrial zone in Larkana was yet to be built, he added.