PA witnesses ruckus as Zaman makes strong remarks on dog-bite incidents

The Sindh Assembly witnessed a rumpus on Friday when remarks by an opposition MPA infuriated members of the treasury benches, causing several lawmakers and ministers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rushing to attack him while the speaker expunged several remarks and words for being ‘unparliamentarily language’.

The pandemonium started when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman, while expressing concern over the rising dog-bite incidents in Sindh and praying for a minor girl who reportedly died due to a canine attack in Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s constituency in Jamshoro, remarked that there seemed to be dogs’ rule in the province.

Zaman’s remarks enraged the ruling PPP lawmakers who rushed towards the opposition benches and told the PTI lawmakers to get out of the assembly hall, prompting the latter to retaliate with strong words.

Several PPP ministers including Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Taimur Talpur and others rushed towards the opposition benches. PTI MPA Arsalan Taj and some other legislators of the party also stood from their benches and tried to physically assault the rushing treasury lawmakers; however, some MPAs from both the opposition and treasury benches came in between and prevented the scuffle.

Exchange of hot words took place between PPP’s Talpur, Fayyaz Butt and Burhan Chandio and PTI’s Taj, Zaman and Omar Omari. Some female MPAs from both the sides also shouted against each other’s parties.

Trying his best to maintain the decorum, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani asked members from both the sides to calm down, saying that this was not the way to behave in the assembly, especially at the time of the Friday prayers.

However, after failing to maintain order, the speaker told the enraged MPAs to leave the house and go outside if they were so much ‘interested in violence’. He also ordered to expunge all the derogatory remarks and words.

Following the ugly start, Zaman resumed his prayer for the deceased and said that Chawla, who holds the portfolio of the provincial excise, taxation and narcotics control ministry, had issued licences to too many wine shops. His remarks once again triggered chaos in the assembly and members from the treasury benches started speaking at once.

Chawla alleged that Zaman, who runs a restaurant in the city, served sub-standard food at his eatery, which intensified the rumpus.

The disorder remained throughout the proceedings as Talpur, who was replying during most of the time in the question hour, kept criticising the Centre and provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa instead of responding to queries regarding his department.

The speaker asked the minister not to go out of context. He also warned of expelling the members not wearing masks. “Please wear a mask,” the visibly-irritated speaker said.