Qaim Ali Shah has now officially been sworn in as Sindh’s chief minister, while Agha Siraj Durrani and Shehla Raza are speaker and deputy speaker respectively.
Soon after the session began, speaker Nisar Khuhro announced the names of candidates nominated by different parties for the three positions and voting, through secret ballot, began. First was the election of the speaker, where the PPP candidate Durrani secured 87 votes, Khawaja Izharul Hassan of MQM got 48 and the PML-N and PML-F’s candidate, Irfanullah Marwat, got only 18 votes. Two votes were rejected.
The deputy speaker’s election was a bit more contentious. Around 60 lawmakers voted without realising that the name of one of candidates, PPP’s Shehla Raza, was missing from the ballot. The PPP had fielded Raza against the MQM’s Heer Ismail Sohu and the PML-F’s Nusrat Seher Abbasi This created uproar and the election was suspended till new ballot papers were printed. Although three PTI members abstained, Raza got around 86 votes, Heer Sohu 48 and Nusrat Seher Abbasi could only secure 18 votes. In the third and last phase, the election for leader of the house (CM) was started. Syed Qaim Ali Shah was the PPP nominee, the MQM fielded Syed Sardar Ahmed and Imtiaz Shaikh was nominated by PML-F and PML-N.
Following his victory, Shah took oath as chief minister Sindh from Governor Ishratul Ebad, along with his seven ministers and one advisor.
Dr. Sikandar Mandhro, Sharjeel Memon, Ali Nawaz Mahar, Makhdoom Jameelul Zaman, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Wassan and Nisar Khuhro were appointed as ministers while Murad Ali Shah was made advisor to the CM.
Though portfolios have not been officially announced, party sources say Dr. Mandhro would be given the law and parliamentary affairs ministry, Sharjeel Memon will get the Information ministry and Murad Ali Shah is being given the finance department.
In KP, calls for speaker to quit party post
PTI’s provincial president Asad Qaiser was unanimously elected speaker of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly on Thursday and Imtiaz Shahid was chosen as the deputy speaker.
As soon as Qaiser took his oath, there were murmurs in the house asking him to relinquish his party post.
Earlier, Speaker Kiramatullah Chagarmati adjourned the session in a bid to convince opposition to elect a speaker unanimously.
When the session resumed, Chagarmati informed the house that the opposition withdrew JUI-F’s Munawar Khan, and PML-N’s Arbab Akbar Hayat’s nominations.
It was then that Qaiser took his oath, while Chagarmati left the house after being given a standing ovation. Later, Qaiser administered the oath to Imtiaz Shahid.
Though the speaker and deputy speaker were elected unopposed, some speeches, however, were laced with animosity.
It started with the ANP’s Sardar Hussain Babak, who asked the speaker to relinquish his party position, saying it does not suit the custodian of the house, to be the president of a political party, a view echoed by the PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi.
JUI-F’s parliamentary leader Lutfur Rehman, after congratulating the newly elected speaker and deputy speaker, announced that his party does not accept their mandate.
PTI’s Shaukat Ali Yousafzai defended Qaiser and said it was not necessary to relinquish his party post, citing President Zardari’s example, upon which PPP lawmaker Nighat Orakzai said that it was not justified to equate the president to the speaker. Qaiser himself said that he would speak to his party leaders on the issue. The leader of the house is to be elected today (Friday).
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2013.