KARACHI: Agha Siraj Durrani of the Pakistan Peoples Party on Wednesday became only the second individual to occupy the speaker’s slot in Sindh Assembly for a second consecutive time when he comfortably won the election against a nominee fielded by the combined opposition parties.

Rehana Leghari of the same party triumphed over another female member of the combined opposition by even a greater margin to win the election of deputy speaker.

Mr Durrani is the only one to win a second term as the assembly’s speaker in the past seven decades. However, before that Syed Miran Mohammad Shah, the assembly’s second speaker after Dewan Bahadur Bhoj Singh in the parliamentary history of Sindh, occupied it for more than 10 years — from 1938 to 1948.

Mr Durrani secured 96 out of 158 votes polled. His rival, Jawed Hanif of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, bagged 59 votes. Three votes were rejected.

Assembly to elect new Sindh CM today

The day’s session was presided over by PPP’s Nadir Magsi, who, as per assembly’s rules of procedure, was assigned by Speaker Durrani to be in the chair, as the latter could not lead the proceedings for being a candidate himself for the top slot.

TLP abstains from voting

As the session began after a delay of 45 minutes from the scheduled time, the assembly secretary led his team to get the members to cast their votes by secret ballots. Two makeshift booths had been set up on both sides of the aisle while a ballot box was put in front of the chair.

Polling took more than two hours to conclude. Three members of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, who were present in the house, opted to abstain from voting for the election of speaker and deputy speaker.

Sindh Assembly comprises of 168 members. However, so far 163 members have taken oath, which included three PPP MPAs who were sworn in by the chair before the polling.

Two female members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and MQM-P have not taken the oath; result of another constituency (PS-54 Tharparkar) is awaited while election on PS-87 (Malir) was postponed due to death of a contestant.

With a PPP member from Khairpur opting for the National Assembly, the party still has 97 members while other five parties have the combined strength of 66 members.

Two opposition lawmakers — PTI’s Imran Ismail who has been named as the next governor of Sindh, and Grand Democratic Alliance’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi — were absent, making the collective strength of opposition parties in the house at 61.

PPP’s Leghari secured 98 votes — one more ballot than the party’s strength in the house — against PTI’s Rabia Azfar who got 59 votes. One vote was rejected.

New speaker, deputy felicitated

On both the occasions, when announcement was made to declare winners, PPP supporters in the galleries chanted loud slogans.

Referring to an additional vote secured by Ms Leghari against her party’s strength, CM-designate Murad Ali Shah while addressing the opposition said: “There is a thief in your own ranks and not in ours.”

Felicitating the new speaker and deputy speaker, Mr Shah said in the assembly that lasted from 2002 to 2007 in which the PPP sat on the opposition benches, the treasury benches did not allow “a single piece of legislation” from the opposition to get passed.

On the contrary, he added, in its past two tenures, the PPP government allowed dozens of private bills and resolutions tabled by the opposition to get passed.

He rubbished the opposition’s objection against chanting of slogans by the supporters of the PPP and some other parties during the members’ oath-taking on Monday, saying it traditionally happened every time a new assembly took oath.

He resolved that the next government would “leave no stone unturned to serve the people who had shown their faith in the PPP yet again.”

Mr Durrani thanked the PPP leadership for naming and getting him elected again as the speaker of Sindh Assembly.

He said he had put some officials of the assembly under suspension for the disturbance at the assembly’s gate during the inaugural session.

He also thanked former deputy speaker Shehla Raza who had also occupied the post for two full terms.

Deputy Speaker Rehana Leghari also thanked the party leaders and senior lawmakers including Ms Raza for supporting her.

Former leader of the opposition Khwaja Izharul Hasan of the MQM-P said the members belonging to the opposition parties formed around 40 per cent of the strength of the house, represented millions of voters and should be respected in future.

PTI’s Haleem Adil Shaikh said his party believed in reconciliation and all the opposition parties wanted to offer some good news to the people.

“We will make constructive criticism and not opposition for the sake of opposition,” he added.

GDA’s Shaharyar Maher said the opposition leader in the provincial legislature should head the Public Accounts Committee as was being practiced in the National Assembly.

PPP’s Sardar Shah, Nasir Shah, Shehla Raza, Sohrab Sarki, Mumtaz Jakhrani, Ghulam Qadir Chandio and Taimur Talpur, MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain, PTI’s Khurram Sher Zaman and GDA’s Nusrat Abbasi also spoke.

The opposition’s candidate for speaker’s post, Jawed Hanif, and PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, both facing corruption charges by the National Accountability Bureau, were brought to the assembly from the Karachi central prison upon production orders issued by the speaker’s office.

Election for the leader of the house today

The Sindh Assembly’s secretariat on Wednesday evening notified that the nomination papers of two lawmakers were submitted for the election of the chief minister.

The election is scheduled to be held today (Thursday).

The PPP has fielded Murad Ali Shah as its candidate. His name was proposed by Makhdoom Rafik Zaman and seconded by Nadir Magsi.

The combined opposition has fielded GDA’s Shaharyar Maher whose name was proposed by Khwaja Izharul Hasan and seconded by Khurram Sher Zaman.

Officials in the assembly said the election would be held by the method of division of the house.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2018