KARACHI, July 26: Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah has said that the governor's move to summon the assembly session on a short notice cannot be challenged by members of the house.

"It is not for the first time that the session has been called on a short notice... there are instances where the assembly was summoned to meet on one- or two-day notice during PPP and PML rules."

Mr Shah was talking to a group of newsmen in his assembly chamber after he had prorogued the session amid acrimonious scenes. The purpose of issuing notices, pertaining to the convening of session, was to intimate the members, and this purpose was served when the notice got coverage in media, TV, radio and newspapers, he contended. "Had it not served the purpose, how come the 120 members of 163-strong house turned up to attend the session?"

Defending his role as an impartial speaker, Mr Shah said he had provided fair enough opportunity to opposition members to express their point of view by allowing Mr Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Jam Saifullah, Rafique Engineer and Murad Ali Shah to speak on their points of order.

"My responsibility as the speaker is to run the business of the house in an orderly manner and to provide reasonable opportunity to both the sides to express their points of view. The opposition availed the opportunity and explained the stand that the order about convening the session was passed in a haste."

He criticized the opposition's attitude in the house while the matter of administering oath to a member was taken up. "Thirty to 40 members shouting at a time and indulging in slogan-raising may not help run the business of the house in an orderly and smooth manner."

Rejecting the opposition's allegation of showing partiality, he said said the opposition members often defied democratic norms and indulged in acts contrary to discipline. "That is why I had to issue a warning to Mr Rafique Engineer," he added.

Regarding the objection raised by the opposition about taking up the announcement of assent of the bills given by the governor before question hour, the speaker said: "Under Rule-211, the speaker is entitled to adjust the sequence of agenda and I had exercised this authority only to benefit the opposition which had staged a walkout."

Mr Shah said that since most of the questions had been put up by PPP members, he preferred that question hour be taken up after their return so that they could have a better opportunity to raise supplementary questions.

The speaker revealed that a workshop for legislators would be held on August 12 to discuss how to make the house committee system more effective and a comparative study vis-a-vis the role of such committees in other countries like the United States and India.

In reply to a question, he said that the revised design of the new assembly hall had been finalized and a presentation to this effect would be given soon. Hopefully, the construction work would commence in September this year, he added.

He said that the work on the website of the Sindh Assembly was in progress and its library was also being computerized.