Khuhro apologises for smoking in Sindh Assembly

KARACHI: Senior provincial minister Nisar Khuhro apologized to Members of the Sindh Assembly on Friday for 'unintentionally' lighting up a cigarette on the floor of the House in violation of the Assembly’s rules.

Earlier this week, Khuhro was caught on camera as he flouted the Sindh Assembly’s no smoking rule by lighting up a cigarette inside the assembly hall before walking out of the House after the session had concluded.

TV footage showed Nisar Khuhro lighting a cigarette and smoking it casually while he was surrounded by male and female members of the assembly.

But Khuhro extended an apology to fellow lawmakers today, saying that he “committed the mistake unintentionally” and that he would soon quit “this bad habit”.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader made the apology during the Sindh Assembly’s session today, during which an interesting conversation took place between Khuhro and Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

“I had stopped smoking for 15 years. When I quit, you used to smoke. And you have quit now that I have started smoking again,” Khuhro said to Durrani.

“I have not smoked in three months now,” remarked Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani as Khuhro apologised.

Khuhro is a former Speaker of the Sindh Assembly and a parliamentary leader.

The TV footage of Khuhro lighting up a cigarette inside the House was met with sharp criticism from other provincial lawmakers. MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said he had committed “the mother of all violations” by defying the Assembly’s no-smoking rules, while some said that he had desecrated the sanctity of the House.