KARACHI, Feb 3: The Sindh Assembly session, which is scheduled for Monday, is not likely to take up any business from the order of the day and as per parliamentary practice will be adjourned after offering fateha for the slain Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Syed Manzar Imam, who was killed last month in an armed attack.

Although the Sindh Assembly has a very brief business on its order of the day, including nomination of panel of four chairmen, the question hour pertaining to the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority and an adjournment motion of National People’s Party lawmaker Arif Mustafa Jatoi, it would be adjourned after oath taking of a lawmaker elected in the by-election and fateha for Manzar Imam.

However, official sources said that a notification pertaining to the unopposed winning of four MQM lawmakers —Jamal Ahmad, Nadeem Hidayatullah, Muhammad Ali Rashid and Arshad Abdullah — who had been returned unopposed from Karachi’s PS- 101, 103, 113 and 115 constituencies, respectively, had not been received at the assembly secretariat by Sunday evening.

According to the assembly secretariat, the assembly had so far received the notification of the election of Syed Sarfraz Ali Shah, who was elected in the by-election from Naushahro Feroze, and he would administer oath in the Monday sitting. If the notification regarding the MQM’s MPAs-elect was received by the assembly by Monday morning then they would also take oath, they added.

Analysts said that although the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional had approached the Sindh High Court against a delay in the appointment of MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi as leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, the present assembly session may see some unexpected developments that include parting of ways of the MQM with the government to sit on the opposition benches.

The MQM coordination committee had recently said that the Pakistan People’s Party leadership in the province had failed to honour its commitment.

The analysts felt that this was a plausible excuse for the MQM to switch to the opposition benches from the treasury side to claim the office of the leader of the opposition as it had more MPAs than any other existing opposition party.

The office of the opposition leader has gained importance after the 18th amendment to the Constitution which calls for consultation with the leader of the opposition in the assembly before installing a caretaker set-up in the province.

The summoning of the session is also aimed at covering the mandatory 100 days of proceedings during the current parliamentary year in compliance with the 18th amendment to the Constitution, The session, which is the 7th session of the fifth parliamentary year of the present assembly, had only so far covered 42 days. With the completion of the parliamentary year in April, the present assembly would become the first assembly to complete its five-year tenure.