KARACHI, Sept 2: Sindh is in the grip of a urea fertiliser crisis which manifested itself in discussions for the third time during the on-going session of the Sindh assembly on Tuesday, when through points of order not only the trouble of the growers was highlighted, but the authorities were also warned that if the fertiliser was not made available to the growers, the province would lose its rice and cotton crops.

Being a private members day, the house could not resume its business on Tuesday before 12.30pm, three hours behind its schedule of 9.30am. Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro was in the chair.

Humera Alwani of the PPP was lucky as she had four items – a resolution and three motions -- on the order of the day.

In her resolution, she asked the government to remain steadfast on its demand that revenue collection should be the criteria for resource distribution in the coming NFC award. Her three motions pertained to the constitution of a council of common interests, demand for the abolition of the concurrent list according to the 1973 Constitution, and to stopping work with regard to the construction of the Kalabagh dam.

Information Minister Shazia Marri also highlighted the importance of the private members day, but asked the speaker to give his ruling on it.

The press gallery was expecting some fireworks if some business was taken for consideration from the order of the day. But despite her persuasion, the house was adjourned by the chair for Thursday at 2.05pm after seeking opinion from Syed Sardar Ahmad of the MQM and Jam Madad Ali, leader of the joint opposition, who also like the speaker were sceptical about reassembling of members after the Zuhar prayer break.

He also declared Thursday as the private members day in lieu of Tuesday, which was consumed during the budget session.

On Tuesday the urea scarcity issue came up when Humera Alwani drew the attention of the chair to the death of Abadgar Ghulam Sarwar in Sukkur reportedly from police baton-charge on a crowd. She called for making fertilisers availability easy to prevent such unpleasant incidents.

Bachal Shah of the PPP said that old dealers of fertilisers had been hoarding urea in their godowns to make money at the cost of farmers.

The speaker observed that after winding up the SASO department, dealers were directly buying fertilisers from factories. Neither they keep any record of stock nor of the prices they were charging from growers. There was a need for coordination to check the record to arrest the situation.

Munawwar Ali Abbasi bemoaned that earlier the DPO used to ignore the MPAs’ phone calls, now the DCOs did not bother to respond to their calls.

Mohammad Rafiq Bhanban of the PML-F alleged that urea was being sold in black-market by dealers. Rai Naz Bozdar of the PPP also drew the attention of the house to the issue.

Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza told the house that according to his information the death of Ghulam Sarwar was not caused by the police baton-charge but he died from suffocation. However, an inquiry had been ordered, he added.

Regarding the shortage of urea, Minister for Population Welfare Jam Mehtab Dhar said that due to high prices of the DPA fertiliser, the use of urea had increased by 75 per cent while DPA use had come down by 60 per cent.

He said it was a fact that the factories had released 70 per cent more quota of urea in each district than last year’s. The growers needed fertilisers for sowing cotton and rice while sugarcane sowing would begin next month.

Arif Mustafa Jatoi and Masroor Jatoi recalled that their adjournment motions on the subject were on record which they had moved earlier and should be taken up for consideration. Arif Jatoi also suggested the government subsidize the DAP fertiliser to ease the situation.

It was either because of the congenial atmosphere in the house which is being maintained by Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro or for want of fiery speakers in the ranks of the tiny opposition that the house failed to take up the issue for consideration through an adjournment motion.

Jam Madad Ali asked the law minister to clarify his statement made on Monday, holding him responsible for the delay in the formation of committees. He said he was not even informed about the number of committees to be headed by opposition members.

Law Minister Ayaz Soomro termed it a misunderstanding, pointing out that he had not made any such statement but Syed Murad Ali Shah had only said that the constitution of committees was being delayed as a meeting which was to be held earlier for the purpose but could not take place because of his absence owing to his indisposition. He said the PPP was a democratic party and would soon constitute the committees.