KARACHI: The opposition parties have fielded a member from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, who is in jail and facing charges of corruption by the National Accountability Bureau, and a female member from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to contest against the PPP’s nominees for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively, on Wednesday (today).

The assembly’s secretariat on Tuesday affixed the final list of the valid nomination papers for the two posts on its notice board.

Jawed Hanif of the MQM-P and incumbent Agha Siraj Durrani of the PPP will be contesting for the speaker’s office. Mr Durrani’s name has been proposed by two former chief ministers — Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Mr Hanif has been proposed by Abbas Jafri and Ghulam Jeelani.

For deputy speaker’s slot, PTI’s Rabia Azfar would be competing against PPP’s Rehana Leghari.

Bilal Ahmed and Adeeba Hasan have proposed Ms Azfar’s name while former deputy speaker Shehla Raza and Kulsoom Chandio have proposed the name of Ms Leghari.

The election for the two posts would be held in the assembly’s session (today) by secret ballot at 10am.

The opposition parties — PTI, MQM-P, Grand Democratic Alliance, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal — have a combined strength of 68 members against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s 96 in the Sindh Assembly as one of its members has opted for the National Assembly.

The MQM-P candidate for the speaker’s post was arrested early last month while contesting general election from the PS-95 constituency of Karachi by NAB for allegedly making illegal appointments.

Mr Hanif was formerly a chairman of the Karachi Port Trust and was wanted in a NAB investigation against officers of the KPT on the charges of corruption, corrupt practices and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in the KPT with the connivance of a former federal minister belonging to the MQM.

A NAB spokesperson had then claimed that many of the 940 people were allegedly involved in heinous crimes, including premeditated murder and robbery.

Following his arrest, MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari had alleged that loyalties were being changed through coercion and threats “to manipulate election results”.

Mr Hanif and PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, also facing graft charges levelled by NAB, were brought to the provincial assembly from the Central Prison Karachi on Monday to take oath following the production orders issued by the assembly’s speaker.

Rabia Azfar has spent two decades working in the tech industry and has been involved in education reforms chiefly focused on Karachi.

She has adopted some schools in the city and wants to help reform the educational system.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018