Ministers spar over Centre's agri project

QUETTA Balochistan Assembly session on Thursday witnessed an unprecedented situation when two ministers not only exchanged objectionable remarks against each other, but almost landed in a physical brawl in the House on Thursday.
The House had met under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Matiullah Agha after a two-day break.
On a point of order, Minister for Agriculture Asad Baloch said the federal govt was launching a project of Trickle Irrigation System in all the provinces. He said Agriculture Department Balochistan had expressed some reservations over the project and requested the federal government for a review and, added instead of a positive response Federal Agriculture Department attached 11 districts of Balochistan with Sindh, Punjab and NWFP.
This is quite strange as on the one hand the federal government is making tall claims for granting maximum provincial autonomy but on the other this act is tantamount to pushing the country towards one unit, he said and added they would not accept any constitutional move negating provincial autonomy.
He tore the copies of letter issued in this regard by Federal Agriculture Department and threw the pieces on the floor in the House.
PPP parliamentary leader and Minister Sadiq Umrani got infuriated over Asads remarks and said Asad Baloch was member of this House under the Constitution and this Assembly was also established under the Constitution. If Asad Baloch does not accept the Constitution then he should go out of the House, he added.
These remarks resulted in exchange of hot words between the two ministers and they also made an attempt for a physical brawl but other members averted it and requested them to exercise patience.
Another PPP member Ali Madad Jhattak also jumped into the fray against Asad Baloch. They ignored the repeated rulings of the chair and the House was in chaos because of their speaking at the same time.
However, other members managed to take both the ministers out of the House and persuaded them to bury the hatchet.
Senior Minister Maulana Abdul Wasay, Peer Abdul Qadir Qadir Gilani, Jaffar Khan Mandokhel and others backed point of view of Asad Baloch and said that the federal government should not take steps contrary to provincial autonomy. However, they said that all issues and problems should be discussed in this House properly and in a civilised manner.
Provincial ministers including Sardar Aslam Bizenjo, Agha Irfan, Zahoor Ahmed Khosa and Syed Ehsan Shah expressed their concern over non recovery of missing persons from Balochistan.
They said that government had failed to recover the missing persons from Balochistan which was one of the serious issues of the province. The government should recover all missing persons. If they have committed any crime they should be produced before a court of law, they demanded.
They also criticised Frontier Corps (FC) and said the government had announced to abolish checkposts but still they existed in different parts of Balochistan and creating immense problems for the people. Attitude of FC is not good with the people, they said.
They demanded that keeping in view problems of people the federal fovernment should abolish all unnecessary checkposts from interiors areas of province and these should be relocated to border areas.
Maulana Abdul Wasay and other MPAs strongly protested over the killing of three Pakistani shepherds by Afghan security forces in Zhob a few days back. They demanded that the government should lodge a protest with Afghan government over the killing of the shepherds.
PML-Q parliamentary leader Jaffar Khan Mandokhel moved an adjournment motion regarding against delay in completion of highways in the province.
Mandokhel told BA that the condition of highways in the province was very bad and it was extremely difficult for the people to travel on these roads.
He demanded that the government should approach authorities of National Highway for early completion these projects.
Non-recovery of missing persons also came under discussion in the session. Deputy Speaker adjourned the house till January 9th because of lack of quorum.