LARKANA, June 30 The acting convener of the Larkana district council, Nisar Bhutto, indefinitely adjourned the council session on Tuesday amid confusion about running the council affairs.

The convener had summoned the session where the budget of the district government for the year 2009-10 was to be presented. However, the council members belonging to the Khushhal Pakistan Panel said that the session was illegal because Nisar Bhutto had no right to call the meeting as he had not been elected to preside over the session.

The PPP-backed Awam Dost Panel (ADP) members chose to remain absent from the council though they were present on the premises of the council hall. Barkat Shaikh and Khair Mohammed Shaikh were seen advising the ADP members not to attend the session.

As soon as the council officer announced beginning of the session, the acting convener occupied the main chair. The council offered fateha for Nawab Shabbir Ahmed Chandio, the chief of Chandio tribe and district nazim of Qambar-Shahdadkot.

Badar Abbasi and Munawwar Abro of the KPP, showing the court orders to the acting convener, demanded selection of any one of the members to preside over the session.

Barkat Shaikh drew his attention to incomplete quorum. Nisar Bhutto said that amid lack of quorum, the proceedings could not move further, and prorogued the session indefinitely.

As he left the chair, Fayyaz Bhutto of the Sindh National Front tried to pull his gown. Amid confusing situation and in the presence of the district nazim and the DCO, Munawwar Abro of the SNF occupied the chair of the convener, read out the court order and invited members to choose a member for presiding over the session.

The 30 members of the KPP stood up and, by raising hands, proposed that Badar Abbasi should preside over the meeting. Later, Badar Abbasi adjourned the session till Wednesday.

Regarding the confusing situation, Badar Abbasi told Dawn that the Sindh High Court, Karachi division bench, comprising Mohammed Athar Saeed and Justice Bin Yamin, hearing a petition of Syed Ali Raza Shah on June 29, had restrained him from attending and presiding over the budget session on June 30.

The petition would come up for hearing on July 13, Badar Abbasi said. The council had unseated Ali Raza through a majority vote and he had challenged the move in the court, he said.

The ADP members had called the budget session but finding them in hot water preferred to remain absent, Munawwar Abro said.