Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Assembly on Monday witnessed the end of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi and Pakistan People Party Minister (PPP) Imdad Ali Pitafi fracas.

The assembly session started around 11.23am instead of 10am with the Deputy Speaker, Shehla Raza in the chair. The assembly session resumed after a two-day break. During this process, the assembly floor witnessed uproar and the deputy speaker suspended the session for 10 minutes.

At the start of the assembly session, the Sindh Minister for Works and Services Imdad Pitafi left his seat and headed over to Nusrat Sehar’s seat, Pitafi had took a red shawl from PPP lawmaker Irum Khalid and then he draped a traditional shawl over the PML-F lawmaker’s head and apologised to her for Friday’s behaviour.

PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi announced on the assembly floor that she was forgiving Imdad Pitafi after he put a traditional shawl on her head and declared her his sister. Later, Nusrat Sehar finally accepted his apology and said that she had forgiven Pitafi for the sake of the shawl.

“For the sake of this dupatta and because he called me his sister, I am forgiving him. It is a tradition in Sindh that when a shawl is used as a sign of forgiveness, then the other person accepts it,” she remarked. PPP minister Imdad Pitafi said, “I made a mistake in the assembly and am apologetic over that, “Pitafi apologized to Nusrat Sehar on the assembly floor.”

“What happened on Friday should not have taken place, it’s regrettable,” Nusrat said in the assembly hall. “My son’s and my feelings were hurt immensely. I had decided of taking an extreme step to set myself on fire to obtain justice. But Bilawal and Bakhtawar Bhutto understood me.” “It is out of respect for this tradition that I am forgiving Imdad Pitafi,” she said.

The deputy speaker had expunged all objectionable and non-parliamentary words from the assembly session proceedings during Friday’s session. PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Sehar has appreciated and thanked the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sister Asifa for taking the issue seriously. She urged the PPP chairman direct the lawmakers to at least respect women legislator in the Sindh assembly so that they (Women MPA) should feel safe in the house.