KARACHI: Sindh PA session: crisis haunts Establishment
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Dec 5: The impending crisis, originally created by the split mandate and gradually deepened during the ensuing abortive manoeuvrings by all the parliamentary groups in the Sindh Assembly, is still haunting the Establishment though the inaugural session of the newly-elected House has been rescheduled for Thursday. It is the same situation which had prompted the competent authority to postpone the session twice before.
In the Thursday’s session, if held as per the new schedule, the members-elect will be sworn-in before electing speaker and deputy speaker of the House. However, it is quite clear from the outcome of the series of talks between majority and minority parties/groups, that none of them has succeeded in ensuring a simple majority that could have led to the smooth process of election for any slot within the House.
Political circles fear imposition of Governor’s rule as an ultimate way out that will certainly stir an even deeper constitutional crisis.
So far no parliamentary group has come out with an incontestable claim of enjoying a simple majority for its favourite as Leader of the House.
With five assembly members having chosen their dual National Assembly seats, the actual strength of the House, i.e. 168, has restricted to 163. The single majority party is the PPP having 67 members followed by the MQM with 41. The PML-Q has emerged as the third largest party with 15 members while the National Alliance, PML-F, and MMA have a strength of 14, 13 and 10 members respectively. There are two Independents and one member of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in the House. The PPP Parliamentarians which, at one stage, was likely to muster support of the PML-F in addition to the much expected favour the MMA in its bid to field Nisar Khuhro as a consensus candidate for the Leader of the House, also seems to be isolated at this moment.
Political observers pointed out that soon after the announcement of the new date, i.e. Dec 12, for the holding the opening session, the PML-F chief reiterated his full support to the Muttahida candidate, Syed Sardar Ahmad, as the Leader of the House.
Likewise, the Sindh chief of MMA, Maulana Asadullah Bhutto, also appeared not very happy over PPP’s response towards the 27 conditions unveiled by the alliance.
Talking to Dawn on Thursday, Maulana Bhutto said that the PPP leadership had not only failed to respond positively to the conditions, its chairperson, Benazir Bhutto’s statements that she had issued time to time, had prompted the MMA to keep reservations.
When asked if MQM or PML-Q had opened up any channel to win their support for the job, he said: “not yet.”
The camp of King’s Party also appeared to be ripped off after Dr Arbab Rahim was disowned by the PML-Q’s Sindh President, Ghous Bux Maher, who is also a federal minister. Besides, PML-F chief, Pir Pagara, has indeed refused to back his candidature.
This turn of events has further confused the situation as the King’s party, led by PML-Q, has failed to nominate any other member as an alternative candidate acceptable to all the five groups for the job.
Other names, like Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of PML-F, Jam Madad Ali, Arif Jatoi of National Alliance, Papu Shah of PML-Q and Mohammad Ali Maher (Independent), which are being floated by the interested quarters, have failed to get considerable support from other groups.
When asked about the prospects of the MQM nominee for his election as the Leader of the House, Imtiaz Sheikh said that it depended on the leadership of every parliamentary group in the Sindh assembly.
