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KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party legislators of Sindh Assembly pledged at a parliamentary group meeting on Friday to remain loyal to the party and abide by its discipline.
The participants, including ‘friends’ of former home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza, assured the meeting that they would not indulge in any activity which could harm the prestige of the party.
A total of 84 legislators attended the meeting. Two could not make it as they had gone to perform Haj, two others were indisposed and five were out of the city.
The Minister for Religious Affairs, Syed Khursheed Shah, who specially flew here on Friday evening, attended the meeting on the directive of President Asif Ali Zardari.
The lawmakers in two-hour deliberations reposed confidence in the leadership of President Zardari and Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
Sources told Dawn that friends of Dr Mirza explained their relationship with the dissident leader, saying their ties with him were in their individual capacity.
They said that no member could think of indulging in any activity which could harm the credibility of the party.
The chief minister assured the meeting that the government would not take any decision about the local government system which was not acceptable to the people of Sindh.
Some PPP legislators had refused to dissociate themselves from Dr Mirza and appeared to have been supporting him in his opposition to the revival of local government system in Sindh.
Although the move to summon the provincial assembly session to introduce the new bill of the local government based on the SLGO 2011 was scuttled following an adverse reaction by PPP lawmakers, the meeting of PPP ministers and advisers with the chief minister, preceding the parliamentary party meeting, failed to prevail upon the ministers to distance themselves from Dr Mirza.
This fact came to the fore when six ministers and about 20 PPP lawmakers converged on Friday evening at the Mirza House in Clifton. Three of the six ministers who gathered at the residence of Dr Mirza before proceeding to the CM House for the parliamentary party meeting were Information Minister Sherjeel Memon, Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Revenue Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar.
The other three ministers who were seen at the Mirza House were Excise Minister Mukesh Chawla, Sadiq Memon and Agha Taimour Pathan.
The ministers and lawmakers opposing the SLGO 2011 based on the Nazim system said it should be repealed because they had to go to their electorate.
According to an official handout issued after the meeting, PPP parliamentary party leader Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, who presided over the meeting, called upon the members to ensure enrolment of eligible voters of their constituencies in the electoral lists and get their CNIC prepared so that no eligible voter was left out.
He also recalled the devastation caused by floods in Sindh and said they ought to work for rehabilitation of the rain-affected people.
