KARACHI, Dec 12: Amid slogan chanting, thumping of desks and calls for the rejection of the LFO by the majority of representatives, 162 of the 163 newly-elected members of the Sindh Assembly took the oath on Thursday, reviving parliamentary democracy after a lapse of over three years.

The lone member who could not attend the session, was Muhammad Yunus of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement. Mr Yunus is reportedly in hiding owing to the ongoing conflict over no-go areas.

The total strength of the House is 168 but five of its members, who had also won National Assembly seats, have opted to keep their NA seats.

The maiden session started at about 10.50am. When the former speaker, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, took his seat as presiding officer, the hall was echoing with slogans.

While the supporters of various political parties and groups were engaged in slogan-chanting in the jam-packed visitors’ gallery, many MPAs also joined the chorus, creating a rumpus rarely seen in the past.

Due to mismanagement and issuance of passes to a large number of visitors, there was utter chaos in the hall. The rumpus began when PPP’s women members entered the hall, raising slogans of “Jiye Bhutto” and making victory signs. The MQM supporters responded by raising slogans of “Naara-i-Altaf”. Then the MMA members joined the bout, raising slogans of Allah-o-Akbar and in support of Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The presiding officer was compelled to issue warning to the supporters of political parties, sitting in the galleries, to behave or he would get the galleries vacated.

This is for the first time that the Sindh Assembly has 33 women members; four elected on general seats and 29 on reserved seats.

The seating arrangement for the inaugural session was made in the alphabetical order with women members getting their seats in the last row.

Recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by Na’at-i-Rasool (PBUH), brought sobriety to the House but only for a few moments. Soon after the recitation, there was disorder in House again. The presiding officer tried to bring sanity to the House but in vain.

As the slogan chanting continued, the presiding officer administered the oath to the members. The oath was administered in three languages — Urdu, Sindhi and English. Sindh Assembly is the only House where the business can be conducted in three languages.

Later, the members signed the roll. When the members were signing the roll, the parliamentary party leader of the PPP, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, rose from his seat and sought permission to raise some point. He wanted the House to offer fateha for poor people who had committed suicide because of the policies of the regime during the last three years.

The presiding officer assured the PPP leader that he would be provided the opportunity only after the elected representatives became members of the House by signing the roll.

Every time a prominent member of any parliamentary group was called to sign the roll, he was welcomed by the supporters of his party by thumping of desk and slogans.

MMA’s parliamentary leader Maulana Umar Sadiq and the deputy leader, Nasrullah Khan, held a paper which they showed to press photographers. The paper read that they were taking the oath under the 1973 Constitution and that the Legal Framework Order was not acceptable.

When all members had signed the roll by 12:05pm, the chair declared that the oath had been administered to them in accordance with the 1973 Constitution. He then allowed Mr Khuhro to speak.

Mr Khuhro said the Sindh Assembly had been revived after an interval of over three years. Now that the elected representatives had taken the oath, he hoped, they would be able to address the people’s problems.

Mr Khuhro was continuing when the chair interrupted him, asking him to come to the point. When Mr Khuhro continued, Shoaib Bokhari of the MQM passed some remarks. Mr Khuhro retorted, asking Mr Bokhari to shut up if he could not say anything rational.

Intervening, the chair read out the election schedule for speaker and deputy speaker through secret ballots on Saturday.

The nomination papers could be obtained and filed with the secretary of the assembly on Friday between 9am and 10am. The scrutiny of papers would be held the same day at 4pm.