KARACHI, Jan 28: Pandemonium broke out in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday when the controversial Deputy Speaker, Rahila Tiwana, tried to chair the session in the absence of the Speaker, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah.

Failing to maintain order in the House, she adjourned the session five minutes after taking the chair. When the session resumed, the Speaker was present to chair the rest of the proceedings.

Legislators belonging to the PPP Parliamentarians and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal strongly opposed competency of Rahila Tiwana’s authority to chair the session saying that the matter was subjudice as a petition challenging her election as deputy speaker was pending a verdict by the High Court. They stood up and raised slogans: ‘go Tiwana go’ amid thumping of desks. They insisted that Ms Tiwana could not occupy Speaker’s seat till the matter was decided by the court.

However, treasury bench contested the PPPP and MMA legislators’ contention maintaining that though her case was pending a verdict, the court had not granted any stay order.

Dr Arbab Rahim of Sindh Democratic Alliance, a coalition member, said that the opposition’s uproar over the issue could have been justified in presence of a stay order.

It may be recalled that Ms Tiwana’s rival, an MMA candidate Mr Rajput, was declared elected unopposed as soon as the prescribed time for the filing of nomination papers passed off. However, Ms Tiwana’s papers were accepted when she filed the same afterwards. The Assembly Secretary’s decision on Mr Rajput’s election was withdrawn. The MMA disputed the move saying that the then governor’s subsequent amendment, with retrospective effect, was unconstitutional, illegal and of mala fide intent.

Amid chaos during the Tuesday’s session, the opposition MPAs refused to be cowed down and continued raising slogans against Rahila Tiwana’s chairing of the proceedings. As they, especially women legislators, continued their chorus loudly, one of the provincial ministers, Irfanullah Marwat, relentlessly kept shouting “no... no... no..” Other members of the treasury bench supported him in a similar manner. The noise made it impossible for Ms Tiwana to maintain order.

The opposition paid no heed to Mr Marwat’s repeated promise that the court’s verdict in this respect would be fully respected.

In her attempt to shrug off the uproar, Ms Tiwana went ahead by calling on the opposition members to ask questions but without getting a positive response.

Finally, she adjourned the session at 11.50am for 15 minutes. When it resumed at 12.15pm, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah took the Speaker’s chair.

The Minister for Local Government, Mohammad Hussain Khan, criticized the opposition benches for sabotaging deliberations. He pointed out that there were many MPAs against whose election appeals were pending in the court.

“As far as my knowledge is concerned, the appeal against the election of Ms Tiwana has not been admitted in the court as yet,” Dr Arbab Rahim said.

The Law Minister, Chaudhry Iftikhar, corrected him by saying that the petition was pending and that no stay order had been granted by the court.