Opposition leaders call for removal of Sindh Assembly speaker

Staging sit-in at assembly building, MPAs say Agha Siraj Durrani is partisan and has lost credibility

KARACHI: A day after Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the assembly session without proceedings, opposition members gathered at the stairs of the provincial assembly’s historic building in a sit-in on Wednesday.

Shouting slogans against Durrani, MPAs belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Grand Democratic Alliance called him partisan and demanded his removal, along with that of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, as “Go, Durrani, go” and “Go, Murad, go” echoed in the building.

Durrani had postponed the Sindh Assembly session scheduled for Wednesday to June 3.



“Fifty MPAs signed an application and requested the speaker to requisition the session to discuss the pandemic and measures to deal with it. He initially summoned the session on May 20 and then abruptly adjourned it till June 3,” pointed out opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi as he addressed other members of the opposition. “This shows how he takes dictation from the ruling party. He has lost credibility to chair the session.”

Naqvi stated that the opposition had moved an application for the requisition of an assembly session under Article 54 of the Constitution to discuss the coronavirus outbreak and the Sindh government’s efforts to provide relief to the needy. “The speaker adjourned the session a day before it was scheduled without citing any reason. This is completely against the law and the rules of the assembly,” he insisted.

MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan contended that Durrani had adjourned the session on the directives of the Sindh government, which had no way to justify its apathy to public suffering and its incompetence in dealing with the pandemic.

“The Sindh government is unwilling to listen to opposition parties or to discuss this burning issue,” he argued. “Billions of rupees have been bungled, ignoring the needy people who have borne the brunt of the lockdown. There is no government in the province, only a dictatorship.”

PTI’s Haleem Adil Shaikh, meanwhile, opined that not a single stakeholder had been happy with the provincial government’s performance in the wake of the outbreak. "The provincial ministers are creating fear by presenting their facts and figures about coronavirus," he maintained, further alleging the funds allocated for rations have gone into ministers’ pockets.

Making demands

Opposition leaders drafted a joint resolution condemning the Sindh government’s performance and demanded that it step down.

“The government had earlier announced that it would take all stakeholders into confidence but the PPP government is imposing its own decisions. It is high time to get rid of it and heave a sigh of relief,” read the draft, which was submitted to the assembly secretariat.

At the same time, Naqvi, on behalf of the joint opposition, wrote separate letters to the Chief Justice of Pakistan as well as the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, requesting that they order the Election Commission of Pakistan to remove Durrani from his position for knowingly violating the Constitution and no longer being “either Sadiq or Ameen.”

"Durrani has adjourned the session without any reason. It is a totally unconstitutional step and has no parallel under democratic principles and norms,” he wrote. Calling the speaker’s actions a “gross violation of the Constitution,” he asked the judges, who had “taken an oath to uphold the Constitution,” to immediately order Durrani to convene the session as per their requisition.

Rejoinder

Reacting to Naqvi’s letters, members of the PPP-led provincial government called them illegal.

“The opposition leader can write to the chief minister, prime minister and others, but cannot write to the Chief Justice or a judge of any court,” insisted Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab. “I ask him to come up with ideas under the ambit of the law.”

Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, meanwhile, was of the view that it was the speaker’s prerogative to summon or adjourn assembly sessions. “No one can dictate to the speaker.”