|
Acting
Speaker Shehla Raza, accused the male members of the
Sindh Assembly of not taking the issues of women
seriously as pandemonium broke out in the in the
assembly on Thursday.
Raza made this
comment after a furore was caused in the House by
the remarks of a PPP MPA Sardar Jam Tamachi, who
made ‘insensitive remarks’ after a resolution was
passed on domestic violence. He had implied that
women too tortured their husbans.
The deputy speaker
said she did not expect such remarks from a senior
legislator. She said that if any member had been
ill-treated by his wife, he might be allowed to move
a resolution in the House, but they must not show a
“non-serious” attitude over women’s issues.
Raza later expunged
the remarks of the PPP legislator.The House also saw
some women lawmakers walk out of the House in
protest over the remarks of Sardar Tamachi while
almost all the other women MPAs lodged their
protest.
They interrupted his
speech whereupon he attempted to walk out of the
assembly hall but some of his male colleagues who
had been amused by his comments did not let him do
so.Home Minister, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, made certain
observations in a lighter vein which too were deemed
offensive and expunged from the proceedings by the
acting speaker.
Meanwhile, Sardar
Tamachi told reporters outside the assembly that he
had had no doubts over domestic violence haunting
women of the rural areas. However, he also added
that women were mentally torturing their husbands in
the urban areas.
Earlier, the PA
unanimously passed a resolution against domestic
violence and also formed a committee to look into
the root causes of this scourge. Meanwhile, a
private resolution calling for declaring year 2012
as a “child-free year” was deferred till the next
private member’s day with the law minister, Ayaz
Soomro, observing that the resolution needed to be
re-drafted keeping in view the laws and religious
sensitivities.
Jam Tamachi, the
mover of the resolution, said he deemed “rapid
increase” in the population to be one of the major
problems and by moving the resolution he meant to
lay stress on the need for controlling population
growth.
He said the rate of
unemployment was rising because the government could
not meet the needs of a growing population. Tamachi
wondered what the harm was in observing a
“child-free year” when Muslims had already been
observing Western practices like Valentine’s Day. Dr
Zulfiqar Mirza, advised the government to follow the
Chinese example in controlling population growth.
|
