KARACHI, July 26: Slamming the government for wasting public money by summoning one-day session of the Sindh assembly in a haste just to administer oath to a Muttahida Qaumi Movement member
, opposition leader in the house Nisar Ahmed Khuhro accused Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of behaving in a partisan manner.
Addressing a news conference in his chambers on Monday, he said this was a fit case for a reference against the speaker. Mr Khuhro, who was accompanied by parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Maulana Omar Sadiq, regretted that the speaker, while officiating as governor, behaved in a partisan manner.
He said that the speaker's conduct proved that the government was trying to push the election commission to the wall on the issue of the results of Karachi by-poll. He told a questioner that possibility of filing a reference against the speaker would be discussed with legal experts.
Mr Khuhro pointed out that a single day's session of the assembly would cost about Rs2.8 million. "This means that those at the helms of affairs wasted such a huge amount just to get a single person sworn-in."
He said it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that an election commission had declared null and void result of a ruling party candidate's election and also announced schedule for a repoll. However, he added, the election commission was pushed to the wall.
Mr Khuhro claimed: "Since the opposition candidate had declared that he would challenge the high court's verdict in the apex court, the Sindh governor hurriedly summoned the assembly session for the oath-taking because the new member belonged to his party."
The opposition leader alleged that the election commission had been forced not to challenge the SHC's verdict against the EC's decision. He was of the view that it was the EC's responsibility to let people know why were the May 12 by-polls results declared null ad void.
"Why was the Chief Election Commissioner Mr Irshad Hassan Khan forced to proceed on leave... and why is he returning only now when the (high court) verdict against the EC's judgment has been announced?" argued Mr Khuhro.
He claimed that the government had demonstrated such a haste because it wanted to manipulate the country's legal system to its advantage as had been done in the case of Ms Rahila Tiwana's election as deputy speaker.
