• Murad apologises to MPAs for dissolving PA a day before completion of term
• Opposition leader Rana Ansar calls for ‘Charter of Awam’ for public welfare

KARACHI: Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Friday showed rare unity by engaging themselves in a heart-to-heart talk during the farewell session of the Sindh Assembly, which was later dissolved a day before completion of its five-year constitutional term.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani congratulated the lawmakers for successful completion of the assembly term. He said he had been under arrest for the past four and half years, but he performed his constitutional duties.

“I am a dedicated worker of Shaheed BB [Benazir Bhutto],” he said in a choked voice as tears rolled down his cheeks.

Apologising to the lawmakers in his farewell address for dissolving the assembly one day before completion of its five-year tenure, Leader of the House Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that record legislation and works had been done during the five years by the assembly despite the fact that many attempts were made by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led federal government to prevent the provincial government from functioning.

“The main example of hurdles is the arrest of Speaker Durrani who still comes from jail to run the assembly,” he said, adding that several PPP members and bureaucrats were implicated in “false and fabricated” cases just to destabilise the province.

The outgoing CM said that during the last five years they had to tackle three calamities including Covid-19, floods 2022 and ‘Imran Khan’.

He was of the view that the PPP would form the next government for the fourth consecutive time in Sindh after winning the upcoming general elections.

Leader of the Opposition Rana Ansar in her speech called for a ‘Charter of Awam’ for the welfare of the people, suggesting that all parties should join hands in the larger interest of the common men.

She said that 18th Amendment was passed over a decade ago by all the parliamentary parties but the common man was not provided with its fruitful results.

Regarding appointment of the caretaker chief minister in Sindh, she said that the opposition would forward three names after consultation with other parties.

She said that they would surely come back to the assembly and the next time around, they would sit on treasury benches.

MQM-P’s Ali Khurshidi, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan’s Muhammad Qasim, Syed Adbul Rasheed of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, provincial ministers Sharjeel Inam Memon, Saeed Ghani, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and other PPP members including former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Muhammad Ali Malkani also spoke.

Earlier in the day, members from both sides of the aisle along with Speaker Durrani gathered for a group photo. However, those PTI members who had not been attending the session following May 9 riots were not in attendance.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023