KARACHI: Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani haphazardly adjourned till Feb 7 Monday’s sitting of the Sindh Assembly after opposition lawmakers launched a strong protest over rejection of their demand to discuss the murder of a teenage girl in Khairpur district.

The day’s session remained peaceful till the end of the discussion on calling-attention notices. The row started when Deputy Speaker Rehana Leghari allowed Pakistan Peoples Party’s Zulfiqar Shah to move an adjournment motion as per the order of the day.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Dua Bhutto rose asking the chair to allow her to move a resolution regarding the murder of a 13-year-old girl, Ramsha, in Khairpur’s Kot Diji town allegedly by an influential person.

The region in question is predominantly influenced by the Wassan family headed by former provincial minister Manzoor Wassan of the PPP.

The chair’s refusal to take up PTI resolution regarding Ramsha’s murder sparks protest

The PTI member said the issue was so important that no business in the house should be prioritised over it.

Deputy Speaker Leghari said the opposition’s resolution would be taken afterwards as she had already allowed the tabling of an adjournment motion.

Grand Democratic Alliance’s Hasnain Mirza said the matter was important because a teenage girl was the latest victim of the menace of karo kari (honour killing) and the influential killers were roaming freely with no one there to arrest them.

The treasury members said after permitting an adjournment motion it would be against the rules of the assembly to allow any other business.

Meanwhile, the mover of the adjournment motion stood and began reading out his motion regarding excess billing in Mirpurkhas by Hesco.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Chawla said the treasury would not oppose the PTI’s resolution after the adjournment motion.

During the noisy proceedings, someone pointed at Manzoor Wassan alleging he had a hand in what happened in Khairpur.

It played as a catalyst to make PPP’s Munawwar Wassan, a nephew of the former minister, angry who fired a broadside over the opposition parties saying his family had no involvement in the incident.

Later, as he spoke to reporters, Mr Wassan said the suspected killer and victim both belonged to the same caste — the one he belonged to as well — but his family had no relation with those involved in the murder.

“Blame the one who is involved in the abduction and murder of the innocent girl, catch him, punish him, but don’t get our elder [Manzoor Wassan] involved in it. We have no hand whatsoever in this tragic incident,” said the young Wassan.

Meanwhile, Speaker Durrani returned to the house and asked the members not to hurl personal attacks against each other.

He asked the house to be peaceful, but the speaker could not convince the fellow members to quieten down.

Opposition Leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi said Khairpur’s incident was so painful and horrendous that no other business could eclipse its importance.

He demanded that the speaker suspend the day’s business and allow the mover to table her resolution.

In the meanwhile, GDA’s Nusrat Sehar Abbasi rose and began speaking loudly upon which Speaker Durrani told her to sit down and “don’t shout at me”.

Ms Abbasi left her seat and along with several other opposition members came in front of the speaker’s chair.

The opposition members chanted slogans against the provincial government and in one of those slogans they demanded the arrest of Zulfiqar Wassan, an influential landlord of the area who was allegedly involved in the incident.

The chair repeatedly asked the members to go back to their seats and then abruptly adjourned the proceedings for Feb 7 (Thursday) amid opposition’s sloganeering.

Bilawal’s intervention sought

Later, Ms Abbasi while talking to reporters alleged that the influential feudal had kidnapped and killed the teenager by shooting her multiple times. “We are not going anywhere until Ramsha gets justice,” said the GDA’s outspoken member.

She added that no proceedings of the assembly would be allowed to be held until the Khairpur victim got justice. “Her killer should be arrested and punished; until then we are not going to take rest.”

She appealed to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his sisters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa, to take personal interest in the matter and help the affected family get justice.

“If you do not help the mother of Ramsha get justice then we will [be] on the streets. You are children of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, this is your test to show how far you can go to help the poor people; else you will not be forgiven by both Sindh and your martyred mother,” she said.

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said the opposition members were “irresponsible” during the day’s session, observing that their protest was designed “to score points”.

He said the provincial government believed in punishing Ramsha’s killers and was making efforts to do so. “It is our responsibility to punish her killers; but, the opposition does not want to seriously discuss such issues in the house.”

PPP’s Imdad Pitafi expressed his disappointment that the PTI members were trying to “politicise” a purely human issue. He added the government was committed to arrest the killers.

Mr Pitafi said the speaker had asked the opposition to wait for a while until the adjournment motion was discussed, but that was not allowed by the PTI-led members.

He said the resolution on Ramsha would have been passed unanimously had the opposition benches not created a scene in the house and waited for a while as advised by the chair.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2019