MQM to protest in NA over Sindh CM’s controversial speech today

ISLAMABAD: Members of the Mutt­ahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) through a calling-attention notice are set to lodge their protest on the floor of the National Assembly on Monday (today) over a recent controversial speech delivered by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the provincial assembly as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) termed the inclusion of the notice in the agenda mala fide and against rules.

The National Assembly secretariat has placed the calling-attention notice submitted by five MQM members on the Orders of the Day issued for the sitting of the lower house of parliament on Monday.

Through the notice, MQM lawmakers have invited the attention of federal Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari to a matter of urgent public importance regarding the Sindh CM’s hate speech, causing grave concern among the general public.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Kishwer Zehra, Usama Qadri, Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani and Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan are movers of the notice.

PPP terms govt’s move to convene sitting on Dec 27 mala fide

The assembly will take up the notice on a day when a majority of PPP members will be attending a ceremony at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to mark the 14th death anniversary of former party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Interestingly, the calling-attention notice on the issue of gas shortage in Karachi moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Faheem Khan and on the agenda for the past two days, has been mysteriously dropped from the agenda to accommodate the MQM’s notice.

Under the rules, only two calling-attention notices can be placed on the agenda on a single day.

MQM members have moved the notice to protest against the Dec 11 speech of the Sindh chief minister in the provincial assembly in which he had lashed out at the opposition for trying to create a rural-urban ethnic divide.

“Do you want people from Islamabad to occupy Sindh? The people of Sindh will never allow such an occupation. Yes, we are part of Pakistan and we should be considered a part of Pakistan. Don’t create a situation that people start thinking about something different. You are in minority and will remain in minority and can never take decisions,” the Sindh chief minister had said in his speech.

The members of the opposition in Sindh Assembly belonging to PTI had submitted a resolution to the provincial assembly secretariat demanding an apology from Mr Shah.

The resolution described CM Shah’s speech biased and anti-state and warned him that the party’s protest campaign against the recently-passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021 would continue.

In the resolution, the opposition members said that Mr Shah had used the phrase to throw the members out of the House and the PTI asked him to withdraw his hate speech and apologise on his biased and hateful statement.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, PPP MNA Shazia Marri lashed out at National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser for allowing inclusion of the controversial calling-attention notice on the agenda and also for convening the assembly session on the day of the death anniversary of Ms Benazir Bhutto.

Ms Marri claimed that they had already requested the speaker not to call the assembly session on Dec 27 as the death anniversary of late Ms Bhutto was a national tragedy.

She said the speaker and everyone in Pakistan knew that PPP leaders, members and activists gathered at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on this day every year to pay homage to their leaders.

Ms Marri said that under the rules, the speech of the chief executive of a province delivered on the floor of the assembly were protected and could not even be challenged or questioned in a court of law and in other assemblies

“I feel that the calling-attention notice has been needlessly allowed to be listed on the agenda with a clear mala fide intention,” she alleged.

Moreover, Ms Marri said, the previous calling-attention notice on the issue of gas shortage in Karachi had not been dispensed with as per rules which also proved mala fide intentions of the government. Unfortunately, she said, the speaker’s office was being used to spoil the environment in the assembly.

She claimed that opposition members had been previously told by the government that there would be no session of the National Assembly in December, adding that if the assembly session was so necessary then it could have been called earlier.

Ms Marri also criticised the government for placing resolutions seeking extension in the life of six ordinances. Out of these six ordinances, she said, four had already expired. Under the rules, she said the life of an already expired ordinance could not be extended.

The agenda item shows that the government is seeking extension to the Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021, with effect from Dec 15 whereas it has placed resolutions on the agenda seeking extension to the Public Properties (Removal of Encroac­hment) Ordinance, 2021, the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, and the Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, from Dec 22.

Despite repeated attempts, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan could not be contacted for his comments on the issue.