Opposition parties demand PA session to discuss 18 issues

Lawmakers belonging to the three main opposition political parties in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Wednesday submitted a requisition to summon the session of the legislature. They submitted their request to the office of the PA’s secretary.

The requisition submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) mentions 18 issues on which the opposition parties wish to discuss in the House.

The issues include Provincial Finance Commission, law and order situation, target killings, deaths in Tando Jam and Tando Allahyar due to poisonous liquor, artificial fertiliser shortage, food items’ price hike, high-ups’ involvement in land occupation, government’s failure to take action against encroachments and land occupation, Covid-19 vaccination campaign, health department staff’s problems, artificial water shortage, examination fee hike and deaths of newborns in Tharparkar.

Talking to the media on the occasion, PA opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh of the PTI said the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 had been rendered completely redundant after the recent judgment issued by the Supreme Court.

Sheikh said that both the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pak Sarzameen Party had colluded with the provincial government to make decisions to amend the LG law despite the fact that the two political parties lacked any popularity in Karachi.

He said the provincial government had facilitated the JI’s prolonged sit-in outside the PA, while the gates of the assembly had been closed for opposition parties’ legislators in the past. He also said the protest banners of the PTI and the MQM-P had been instantly removed across the city, but no such action had been taken against the banners displayed by the JI.

He pointed out that summoning a PA session had become unavoidable because certain issues of urgent nature needed to be discussed, such as several people dying after consuming toxic liquor. He claimed that the facilities producing poisonous alcohol were being operated under the patronage of a provincial minister.

Sheikh said that the next session of the House should also discuss issues like the high-handedness of the police while tackling the rally of the MQM-Pakistan outside the Chief Minister House, and female protesters in Tando Allahyar being subjected to maltreatment by the police.

He referred to a report submitted to the apex judiciary showing that 2.8 million acres of forest land in Sindh had been under illegal occupation, with up to 80 per cent of the forests in the province rendered extinct.

He said that in such a context, the latest decision of the Sindh cabinet to hand over two small islands off Karachi’s coast, namely Bundal and Buddo, to the provincial forest department was absolutely uncalled for.