KARACHI, Nov 28: People’s Party Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Thursday demanded of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to prove his majority in the House after the MQM’s decision to sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly.

Asked whether the PPP would requisition the assembly session for this purpose, Mr Fahim said: “It is for the government to prove its majority”.

Talking to newsmen at an Iftar, Mr Fahim said it appeared that the Jamali government was standing on crutches, and after the MQM’s decision its credentials had become questionable.

The PPP leader expressed concern over an indefinite postponement of the Sindh Assembly’s inaugural session and demanded that it should be called immediately. He said the PPP had the required numbers and was striving to form a government in the province. The government had postponed the session to block the PPP’s path, he claimed.

He cautioned the government against negative repercussions of the use of “coercive and highhanded means” to install a government of its own choice in Sindh.

Mr Fahim emphasized the need for strengthening democratic dispensation and called for continuing dialogue between political parties.

Asked what action the PPP was contemplating against Faisal Saleh Hayat and other defectors, he said the action would be taken according to the party constitution.

Mr Fahim declared that attempts to create a forward bloc in Sindh would not succeed and demanded “fair play” in the power game.

The PPP leader said people had hoped that elections would be a landmark in ushering in clean and healthy politics. But unfortunately that was not true as horse trading was going on and members of parliament were being coerced to change their loyalty, he added.

He told a questioner that Nisar Khuhro was the parliamentary leader of the party in the Sindh Assembly and the name of the candidate for the chief minister’s slot would be announced at an appropriate time.

Analysts believe this could be a hint at springing a surprise on the pattern of the National Assembly, but an insider said that the party would follow the pattern of Punjab where the parliamentary leader and chief minister’s candidate was the same and Mr Fahim’s reply was merely a technical one.