KARACHI: When the Sindh Assembly meets on Wednesday for the first time after the August 22 incendiary speech of Altaf Hussain, it will take up three resolutions demanding trial of the MQM supremo and his supporters under Article 6 of the Constitution. This will be a demand which could not be perceived earlier to be tabled against the leader of the third largest party of Pakistan.

His own handpicked 51 lawmakers, who used to defend him tooth and nail in the past, find no way but to join the movers of the resolutions tabled by PPP MPA Khairunisa Mughal, PML-F lawmakers Nand Kumar Goklani, Nusrat Seher Abbasi and Khurram Sher Zaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Besides the resolutions, which would be tabled out of turn with the permission of the house, the assembly is also likely to reverberate with a point of order echoing the raid on the house and arrest and mishandling of leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan.

However, no uproar is likely to be witness by the house as has been the practice in the past when such issues were taken up out of turn.

The formal business on the order of the day include oath affirmation to the newly elected MPAs in recently conducted by-elections in Jacobabad, electing Aurangzeb Panhwar, and in Malir, Karachi, electing Murtaza Baloch, as their election notification by the Election Commission has already landed at the Sindh Assembly secretariat.

Speaker of the Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani would administered the oath to them soon after recitation from the Holy Quran and the nomination of a panel of chairmen. It will be followed by the announcement of the earlier approved nine bills whose assent was given by the governor. They include the KDA Revival (Amendment) Bill, the Sindh Service Tribunal Bill, Sindh Companies Profits (Workers Participation) Bill, Sindh Bonded Labour System Bill, Sindh Senior Citizens Welfare Bill, Sindh Local Government (3rd Amendment) Bill, Sindh Employees Old Age Benefit (Amendment) Bill and Sindh Finance Bill, 2016.

On the agenda, two new bills would be introduced pertaining to the Zulfikarabad Development Authority (Amendment) Bill and the Jinnah Sindh Medical University Bill.

The questions hour would be regarding the health department while the privilege motion of Rashid Khilji of the MQM and adjourned motion of Nand Kumar Goklani are part of the agenda.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2016