Sindh Assembly rejects Arbab’s plea as opposition leader

As only four out of 11 PML-L members signed the request, it was not a majority.

KARACHI: As only four out of 11 of Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s party members have applied to make him leader of the opposition, it has been turned down by the Sindh Assembly.

The four Pakistan Muslim League-Q MPAs who put in the request are Arbab Zulfiqar Ali, Nuzhat Pathan, Chetan Mal and Abdul Razzaque Rahimoon. Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro turned down the application, saying that only four out of the party’s 11 members in the House had signed it. This showed that Arbab did not have the support of the majority, he reasoned.

On March 6, the assembly had for the first time in four years turned down Arbab’s leave request, signalling that the next step could be to disqualify him on the grounds of being absent.

Out of 11 PML-Q MPAs who were elected from Sindh, three of them, Sanjeela Leghari, Ghalib Domki and Ghulam Abid Khan Sundrani, have already abandoned the party to join the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. The remaining eight (of 11) members are divided into two groups - five MPAs are with the PML-Likeminded or Arbab’s group and three are with the Chaudhry brothers’ PML-Q that is part of the treasury benches. “We are following the rules,” said Speaker Khuhro. “We can appoint Arbab as the opposition leader but he has to put on a show of strength of opposition members.” The five PML-L leaders argue that they are the actual opposition in the Sindh Assembly as others have joined hands with the government and are not likely to oppose it. But Khuhro was not willing to accept them because, apparently it was not registered as a party with the Election Commission.

While talking to The Express Tribune PML-Likeminded MPA Chetan Mal Arwani said that they had filed a petition to the Election Commission to register their party. The party has filed another petition in the Sindh High Court, challenging the assembly’s decision to reject Arbab’s leave. “We also appealed to the court to decide who the opposition leader was. The court has summoned the Speaker on March 21,” Arwani said, adding that it was allowed by the constitution, especially after the 20th Amendment, for Arbab to be the leader of the opposition.

Arwani said that the government had allowed the PML-L chief leave for four years, but there was a sudden change in attitude after the Senate elections. “What was wrong if we had contested the Senate election as part of the opposition?” he asked. “This is a democratic country and every party has a right to make its own decisions.” The government has now proved that it was taking ‘revenge’ by this step.

On the other hand, the ministers in the Sindh government said that they had done enough under the reconciliation policy and could not afford it any more.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2012.