KARACHI:Opposition Leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh Friday said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) provincial government had adopted an undemocratic move by not allowing him and other opposition parties’ leaders to speak during the budget session on the floor of the house.
Talking to media along with other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of provincial assembly and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), he accused the Sindh government for setting a bad trend.
Haleem said this is the first time in the parliamentary history that the opposition and specifically the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly and parliamentary leaders of main opposition parties including PTI’s Bilal Ghaffar and GDA’s Hasnain Mirza were barred from speaking on the floor of the assembly during the budget session.
He said such ugly tricks had exposed the true face of the corrupt people. PPP leaders should now stop calling themselves to be the followers of Benazir Bhutto as they had crossed all the limits of decency and democratic norms, he opined.
He said they repeatedly requested Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to act wisely but he did not honour his own chair.
“The opposition’s speech during the budget session is pivotal to the democratic process,” he said.
He said they would challenge this illegal, immoral and undemocratic move in the Supreme Court and also stage demonstrations at every nook and cranny of the province to register their protest against such parliamentary practices.
Haleem, responding to a query about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), said there were no differences with the MQM-P leadership adding they had also rejected the budget but they had their own style of registering the protest.
He said the PPP government by getting the budget passed in haste had formed another charge-sheet against itself.
Speaking on the occasion, the GDA parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Barrister Hasnain Mirza said PPP leaders by not allowing them to speak had set a worst precedent.
He said it was the same party, whose leaders created great ruckus in the Sindh Assembly during the budget sessions when it was in opposition.
Mirza said it was very unfortunate that the speaker remained partial during the budget sessions.
The PTI senior leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi said the PPP leadership had made mockery of the democratic norms.
He said before start of the session, they held meeting with Agha Siraj and requested him to extend the session but he did not keep their words and did not remain impartial while conducting the proceedings of the house.