Despite repeated attempts by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Opposition parties refused to support the resolution. Durrani, who was arrested by the NAB on Wednesday, was brought to the session after acting speaker Rehana Leghari issued his production.Durrani, who was arrested by the NAB on Wednesday, was brought to the session after acting speaker Rehana Leghari issued his production orders.
The resolution, moved by PPP MPA Ghanwer Ali Khan Isran, took exception to the targeted victimisation under the guise of accountability, terming the move selective and discriminatory.We vociferously renounce the way and manner of the arrest of Sindh Assembly speaker without any offence being proved against him, reads the resolution.
This house unequivocally condemns the reprehensible manner in which the search of his home was conducted by NAB officials, which went on for hours at a time when only his wife, daughters and daughter-in-law were at home, it adds.This house also resolves and recommends to the government of Sindh and chief minister to approach the federal government to request an inquiry by chairman NAB into reprehensible behaviour of NAB officials, who raided Speaker Agha Siraj Durranis house.Chaos in the HouseEarlier, as the question and answer session came to an end, PPP MPA Isran sought the speakers permission to move his resolution. At this, the opposition members also stood up from their seats.Hasnain Mirza, the parliamentary leader of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), waving a copy of his resolution, said, I also want to move a resolution on the Kashmir issue and Indian atrocities.NAB granted eight-day physical remand of Agha Siraj DurraniChief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah intervened.
We want to bring a resolution on NAB and will later consider the Kashmir issue, he said. Mr Speaker, since you are the victim in the NAB case, we request you to hand over the proceedings to the deputy speaker for a while, so that we can debate this resolution and pass it.
GDAs Mirza , supported by other opposition members, however, refused to budge. Kashmir is a more important issue, he said.Let us pass it first, and then you can take up your speakers agenda.At this, the CM became emotional.
No. We will take up the NAB issue first and then you can bring a joint resolution on Kashmir by re-inviting Speaker Durrani to take part in it too.The back-and-forth arguments between the CM and Mirza grew more heated. Leader of the Opposition Firdous Shamim Naqvi, as well as other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and GDA MPAs started protesting in the House Kashimr, Kashmir.
We need Kashmir, they shouted, before staging a token walkout.The chief minister stood up again to clarify his stand.No one can deny the importance of Kashmir. We are ready to bring a joint resolution on it and want to convey a strong message against India atrocities.We will smash Indian eyes, if they try to attack us, he said.Amid the Oppositions protest, Durrani left the session, giving his seat to the deputy speaker.
Acting speaker Leghari allowed the PPP MPA to move a resolution against the NAB. PPP lawmakers Saeed Ghani and Imtiaz Shaikh tried to woo the opposition MPAs to return to the House, but their efforts remained unsuccessful.
Saleem Baloch and Sadia Javed of the PPP as well as Kanwar Naveed Jameel and Khwaja Izharul Hassan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Paksitan, expressed their sympathies with Durrani and condemned the raid at his house. We condemn the NAB officials behavior with the family of Agha Siraj Durrani, but cant support the resolution, said MQM-Ps Hasan.The CM requested the deputy speaker to move the resolution for a vote so that the issue of Kashmir could be taken up. As the resolution was moved, MPAs from the treasury supported it, while the opposition members voted against it.
Durranis speechEarlier, as the Assemblys agenda came to an end, Speaker Durrani narrated his story in the session. I want to inform this House about the episode.PPP’s thinly-veiled attempt to outwit the NABHe said that the NAB arrested him from a hotel in Islamabad and later harassed and humiliated his family members. The action was not taken against me, but against the Speakers chair, he said.
After taking me into custody, the NAB officials barged into my home and kept my entire family hostage at gunpoint for more than seven hours. No one can tolerate this, he said.Durrani, who looked frustrated with the authorities, said, My family has rendered scarifies for Pakistan and were one of the signatories to the first resolution passed by the then Sindh Assembly for the creation of Pakistan in the 1940s.He said the NAB officials not only went through the cupboards and other items present in his house, but also harassed his daughters and grandchildren.I am the Speaker of this House and was not running away. I fail to understand why they treated the Speakers family like criminals, he lamented.
This was all done in my absence, otherwise the NAB or anyone else wouldnt have dared enter my home and behave like this, he remarked.Durrani requested the chief minister to investigate the the matter and present a report in the Assembly regarding the raid on his home and harassment of his family members.The Speaker also expressed concern over some Opposition MPAs who welcomed the NABs actions and demanded his resignation. I am not a convicted person.It is just an inquiry against me. I am Speaker of this august House, he said.Before the session commenced on Friday, Durrani met party leaders and his family members after he was brought to the Assembly premises by the NAB. PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari also visited the Assembly to meet Durrani.
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KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) seems determined to use all its resources to ensure the early release of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who was arrested from Islamabad on Wednesday by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) One such move was to summon the Sindh Assembly session five days ahead of its scheduled date, which the ruling party is likely to use to convey its anger over the speaker’s arrest.
On Thursday, the chief minister, flanked by his cabinet, also demanded action against the NAB for harassing Durrani’s family members.Incensed by Durrani’s arrest, PPP lashes out at CentreA riot predictedIn a bid to outwit the physical remand given to the NAB, the deputy speaker Rehana Leghari also issued production orders for Durrani, asking the NAB to present him for the session.Issuing a letter to the NAB Director-General, the Sindh Assembly secretary referred to Rule 82(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Sindh Assembly and called for Durrani to be produced in the Sindh Assembly. “Madam Speaker has summoned the above member to attend the session of provincial assembly starting from Friday.
It is therefore requested to please ensure the production of Agha Siraj Durrani, MPA, till prorogation of the session.”According to a PPP lawmaker familiar with the development, the treasury members plan to wear black armbands in the session and pass a privilege motion or resolution against the NAB.The session, which is slated to commence at 2 pm will likely witness uproar as the opposition has also devised a strategy to counter the PPP’s plans.Murad demands action against NAB Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the NAB officials had not only arrested Durani illegally, they also transgressed the sanctity of `chadar and chardiwari’ by intruding into his house, misbehaving with the women present in the house and keeping them hostage for over seven hours.
“This is unprecedented in a civilised society,” he said, demanding the NAB Chairman to take action against the officials involved in the episode. He questioned if the NAB had so much evidence and documentary proof that they decided to arrest a person [Agha Siraj Durani] who held a Constitutional position in the Sindh Assembly, then why did they raid his house in search of evidence.The CM made these remarks on Thursday while addressing a press conference at the Committee Room of the old Sindh Assembly Building. He was flanked by PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro and his Adviser on Information Barrister Murtaza Wahab.
Shah said that Durrani was a respected senior parliamentarian. His father, Agha Sadaruddin and uncle had been speakers of the Sindh Assembly and now he was holding this Constitutional position.
“The way he was arrested from a hotel in the federal capital was disgraceful and unconstitutional,” he said, adding that as far as the allegations leveled against Durani were concerned, he would face them. In the past he had faced a number of cases and was acquitted.The CM also expressed displeasure over the raid conducted by the NAB authorities at Durrani’s house where his wife, three daughters and a maid were present.He said he had spoken to Durrani’s wife and she had told him that the raiding party, which included two women, forced them to stand in the lawn.
Durani’s daughter had tried to stop a NAB official from smoking when he lit a cigarette, the CM quoted Durrani’s wife as saying. In reaction, the NAB official exhaled the smoke into her face.“This was the way the women were treated inside the house of a person who is Speaker of the Sindh Assembly,” he lamented.Zardari calls Durrani’s arrest a challenge to democracyProduction ordersThe chief minister said that the deputy speaker had summoned the Sindh Assembly session for 2pm on Friday, for which she had issued the production orders of the speaker.
“I am sure the NAB authorities will produce him for the session,” he said.In response to a question, the chief minister said that the registration of an FIR against the NAB officials for raiding their house was the family’s prerogative.“If they want to register a case, we will support them,” he said.To another question, the chief minister said that there was no need for the speaker to resign.“Even if he resigns, he will remain a member of the Assembly,” he said, adding that in 2016, when Durrani had contested the election of the speaker, his opponent was in jail custody but they had not raised any objection. He added, however, that it would be Durrani’s personal decision whether he wanted to continue as speaker or not.
KARACHI: Waking up to the existence of a “police state” in the province, the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah expressed dismay on Monday over the police’s performance in handling the “cold-blooded” murder of Jeay Sindh Tehreek’s Karachi .
The chief minister ordered to register an FIR against the areas police personnel and arrest them for their criminal negligence.
CM Shah was responding to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MPA Abdul Rashids point of order in the Sindh Assembly session on this horrific murder. The video clip available on social media portrays an inhumane and gory picture, he said.
.The UC Nazim Rahim Shah, who killed the man, acted like judge, jury and executioner at the scene and flaunted the rule of gun over there, he added.When he came to know about the incident, the CM said, he had asked the Sindh Police chief IGP Kaleem Imam to properly investigate the matter.
. But the police, without conducting a proper investigation, called the deceased a dacoit. After 24 hours, when the police did not give any tangible results, I asked the chief secretary for a judicial inquiry, he said, adding that the local police was involved in the murder.
. I order to register an FIR against the cops for their criminal negligence, said the CM. We have passed a law in this Assembly to shift injured to the hospital without any legal formality so that their life can be saved.
. The man, who is the alleged robber, was shot five times and was bleeding from his mouth, requesting everyone on the spot to save his life. Instead of shifting him to a hospital, the cops took him to the police station which resulted in his death, the CM remarked.
.Stark warning the chief minister said that the police IG and other officers in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were transferred in minutes if they didnt obey the orders of the chief executive of the province. This is not a police state.
. This is a democratic government! he exclaimed. I will now transfer the IG and other officers if they dont obey my orders, he said.
.But the CM questioned the polices modus operandi. When asked about the progress in this case, the police officers argue that there were cases against the deceased.
. Does it mean we kill all people implicated in FIRs? I have strictly asked the IG and Karachi Additional IG to act as professional police officers, otherwise I will take action because I have to maintain law and order and establish the writ of the state, said CM Shah.He asked the other lawmakers in the Assembly to support him while he takes action against police officers who had established a state within a state.
. I will personally go and register cases against cops for their negligence if the senior police officials are reluctant, said the chief minister, besides announcing that he will meet the chiefs of the Sindh High Court and the apex court before bringing drastic reforms to the police culture in Sindh. Earlier, MMA MPA Abdul Rashid, while referring to Ranjhanis killing, said, The UC Nazim has not only violated the law, it was inhumane to not allowpeople to transfer the victim to a hospital.
. He must be punished for it, he said, adding that the incident occurred at 4:45pm, while the body had reached the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre at 6:37pm.CMs letter to IGEarlier, the chief minister wrote a letter to the Sindh Police chief, expressing serious concern over the unprofessional handling of Irshad Ranjhanis murder case.
. I am writing this letter in utter dismay with regard to the unfortunate incident wherein Irshad Ranjhani was shot dead on February 6.Referring to UC Nazim Rahim Shah, the CM said, Even if Rahim Shahs claim turns out to be true, the law does not give him the licence to kill and take the law into his own hands.
. This verdict remains the domain of the courts of law.According to the chief minister, the incident has shaken the writ of the state and dented the confidence of the people in the governments ability to protect and safeguard their lives.
. Police forces exhibited an irresponsible attitude and did not reach the scene on time, which resulted in the victims death, the letter states. As the chief executive of the province, I shall not act as a bystander and watch the fiasco like above shatter the image of the provincial government.
. It is my constitutional responsibility to ensure that the principles of natural justice and fair play are adhered to by the departments and agencies of the provincial government.The CM further directed the IG to expedite the investigation and fix responsibility on the delinquent officers who mishandled the entire incident.
. In view of the above, you are directed to report in this regard and should reach my office within 48 hours.th, 2019.
