KARACHI: Mahar’s election as CM controversial: Khuhro
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 16: Parliamentary leader of the Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has termed the ascertainment for Ali Mohammed Mahar as Leader of the House ‘controversial’ saying that the second motion proposing his (Khuhro’s) name was not put to the House and no ascertainment was obtained.
“We don’t accept that Mr Mahar enjoys majority... we will decide our future course of action after consultation because Mr Mahar is a controversial Leader of the House,” he declared while talking to newsmen after Monday’s session. The proceedings were marred by frequent uproar over the alleged horse-trading and bypassing of rules and traditions.
Mr Khuhro did not agree with the contention of the Speaker, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, that after Mr Mahar having obtained the required majority, putting the other motion to the House for ascertainment was not necessary.
Mr Khuhro said that the Speaker did not follow the traditions for the ascertainment of support for the Leader of the House and, acting in a haste, did not even complete the agenda for the day.
After consulting legal minds, he added, the party might have a judicial recourse. He said that in the past (1997), when he happened to be a candidate against Liaquat Jatoi, the motion for ascertainment of support for both of them was put to the House.
He said the ‘haste’ in which the Speaker pushed through the controversial head count, without putting the second motion before the House despite it having been submitted earlier in the morning, was reflective of the hollowness of the king’s party.
He regretted that the Speaker did not pay heed to those MPAs who were urging him to put the motion in his (Khuhro’s) favour for an ascertainment and called for a division of the House.
The PPP leader lamented that the Speaker ‘bulldozed’ the day’s agenda and prorogued the session without even allowing Mr Mahar to occupy the seat of Leader of the House. The Speaker, he added, also did not allow exchange of felicitations, which was part of the order of the day.
“I cannot call Muzaffar Hussain Shah naive. It was all premeditated because the ruling party lacked the required majority,” Mr Khuhro claimed.
He said that Mr Mahar’s election was dependent on the support of ‘lotacracy’ (turncoats) who were coerced into submission through intervention of the federal government representatives.
Nisar Khuhro claimed that although 89 votes were counted in a controversial manner, Mr Mahar actually got 79. He pointed out that the flaw and mala fide intentions in the counting were exposed even earlier when in the first count, 62 votes were counted in favour of Mr Mahar but in the second count, the number jumped to 69.
Lashing out at the ruling party for shamefully resorting to lotacracy, he wondered how a government installed with the help of turncoats, would be able to work for the welfare of the people of the province.
Mr Khuhro also declared that action would be taken against those who betrayed the party and their electorates.
Another PPP leader and a former chief minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, condemned the manner in which the counting of votes was conduct. He pointed out that the Speaker did not adhere to the obligations spelt out in the Article 132(A) of the Constitution.
He supported the contentions of Mr Khuhro on putting the motion in favour of the PPP candidate to the House.
Mr Shah said that the question could have been raised whether the House was complete or not when the ascertainment was being obtained as the solitary member of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Mr Younus Khan who was arrested on Saturday, was not produced in the House.
The parliamentary leader of the MMA, Maulana Umar Sadiq, also condemned the procedure adopted to ascertain support for Mr Mahar.
He said that the MMA would also move court against the election of Raheela Tiwana as the deputy speaker of the assembly. He insisted that the joint candidate of the PPP and MMA should have been declared elected unopposed.
In his view, Monday’s events in the House were part of a heinous conspiracy hatched by the Centre against democratic dispensation.
KARACHI, Dec 16: Parliamentary leader of the Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has termed the ascertainment for Ali Mohammed Mahar as Leader of the House ‘controversial’ saying that the second motion proposing his (Khuhro’s) name was not put to the House and no ascertainment was obtained.
