Anita Irfan sworn in as MPA on reserved seat

QUETTA: Anita Irfan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was sworn in on Saturday as member of the Balochistan Assembly on Saturday evening for a second time within the span of a year.

The parliamentary leader of PML-N in Balochistan, Nawab Sanaullah Zehri had nominated her on a minority seat vacated by Santosh Kumar who was de-seated by the house last week. She was named second in the list of candidates.

Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani administrated the oath to Anita Irfan.

Santosh Kumar was de-seated through a motion moved by Chief Minister Zehri’s advisor Muhammad Khan Lehri in the house last week. Lehri contended that although Santosh Kumar had been elected, he was consistently not attending the assembly session, adding that Kumar had also not informed the speaker about his absence.

The house approved the motion without any opposition and the speaker announced his seat vacant.

Santosh Kumar was also de-seated last year as the parliamentary leader of PML-N had withdrawn his name from the party list for minority members.

Subsequently, Santosh Kumar had challenged the decision in the Supreme Court who restored his assembly membership. Anita Irfan was also sworn in as an MPA at that time. Despite repeated attempts to contact him, Kumar was not available for comments.

CM Sanaullah Zehri congratulated Anita Irfan for taking oath as an MPA on minority reserved seat and expressed the hope that she would obey the party discipline and would work for the welfare of her community.

Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetiran of JUI-F, Mir Asim Kurd, provincial ministers Sardar Aslam Bizenjo, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, William Johan Barkat, Abdul Karim Nousherwani, Dr Ruqaiya Saeed Hashmi and Kishwar Ahmed Jattak also welcomed Anita Irfan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2016.