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City Council session ‘Swords monuments never had ZAB quotes’

* Treasury members demand Opp to prove there were ZAB quotes on swords monuments
* Opp outraged by treasury’s claim

By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: The debate over the removal of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s quotes from two monuments - the ‘two swords’ and ‘three swords’ - took a new turn in the City Council session held on Tuesday when a member of the treasury benches claimed that the quotes weren’t there to start with.

When Pakistan People’s Party Awam Dost Group deputy opposition leader Haji Muhammad Jumman Darwan again raised the demand for restoring the quotes on the monuments, Dr Nikhat Shakeel of the treasury benches claimed that there had never been any quotes of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the monuments and the opposition was trying to confuse the House and create a state of confrontation.

Masood Mehmood, also a member of the treasury benches, also followed suit and asked the opposition to provide any evidence that the quotes were ever present on the monuments. However, Jamaat-e Islami Al-Khidmat Group’s leader Rafiq Ahmed Ahmed pointed out that during the last five sessions, the treasury benches had agreed to restore the quotes and now they are denying their very existence.

Later, the opposition staged a walk out, but the members of the treasury benches brought them back to the House. Earlier, the target killing of social activist and Gutter Baghicha Bachao Tehreek president Nisar Baloch and the issue of withdrawal of 134 union council secretaries dominated the proceedings of the session.

Darwan demanded that the House should engage in a detailed debate on the murder of Nisar Baloch. However, Dr Nikhat Shakeel opposed the idea and said that this matter should not be debated since it is sub-judice.

She was interrupted by Awam Dost Panel’s Yousuf Naz, who demanded her to clarify how a debate on the issue is inappropriate. Treasury benches’ Akram Memon paid tribute to Baloch for his struggle against encroachments and illegal occupation of Sindh government and City District Government Karachi’s land, and demanded the Sindh government to constitute an inquiry committee under the auspices of a Sindh High Court judge to probe the killing. Darwan on a point of order defended the Sindh Local Government Department for withdrawing the 134 secretaries as he claimed that the department has only complied with the orders by the SHC.

Opposition claim on UC secretaries issue refuted: The leader of the House in the City Council along with other key members of the treasury benches refuted the claim of the opposition benches in the House that the decision to remove 134 union council secretaries was done in compliance with the orders of the Sindh High Court.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Muhammad Asif Siddiqui, Arshad Qureshi, Syed Absarul Hassan and Mirza Afaq Baig said the opposition’s claim was an attempt to dupe the public. Siddiqui said it was not the court, which had ordered the Sindh Local Government Department (SLGD) to remove the 134 UC secretaries. In fact, the secretaries were the employees of octroi department who had been accommodated at the UCs in Dadu district. They had moved the SHC Hyderabad bench to save their jobs.

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