Local govt law: Estranged lawmakers form opposition
Ministers belonging to three parties had resigned after new ordinance was brought forward.
KARACHI:
As the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party continues to put out fires that broke out after the new local government ordinance was brought forward, lawmakers from its coalition partners on Tuesday decided to desert it and head for the opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly.
The decision came after five ministers, belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), and the National Peoples Party (NPP), had resigned the same night that the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) reached consensus over the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, 2012.
At an hour-long meeting at the residence of PML-F’s Jam Madad Ali, the MPAs decided to jointly apply to the Speaker of the Sindh Assembly to give them the opposition benches. If this goes through, the house of elected representatives would finally have some form of an opposition, which it has been missing since July 2011.
Nationalist parties in Sindh have planned mass protests against the new ordinance on September 13. A number of parties, including the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam and Tehreek-e-Insaf have supported it.
Addressing a press conference, Imtiaz Sheikh and Jam Madad Ali regretted that they were not consulted while the PPP was negotiating the local government law with the MQM. The PPP was staging a “drama in the name of reconciliation” as it had negotiated with only “one party” and ignored the rest of its coalition partners.
NPP’s Arif Jatoi declared that they would oppose the ordinance whenever it was introduced in the provincial assembly and “would continue to struggle until it is withdrawn.”
The NPP has three seats in the Sindh Assembly and two in the National Assembly. The party has yet to decide if it wants to join the opposition benches in the NA as well or not.
Jam Madad said that the newly formed opposition group would also submit a requisition to summon an assembly session so that a debate could take place. He lamented that even after though five days had passed, the government had not promulgated the ordinance by publishing it in the official gazette. “We demand the government take all stakeholders into confidence and implement a uniform system for the whole province,” he said.
Revival of the opposition
If this goes through, the Sindh Assembly will see a 16-member opposition. However, the provincial government is under no threat of collapsing as the PPP controls the lion’s share of 96 seats in the provincial assembly. The MQM holds the next biggest chunk with its 51 seats. If the ANP and the two undecided members of the PML-Q join the Opposition its strength would increase to 20.
The opposition leader
There has been no opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly for the last one and a half years. After the 2008 elections, the PML-F was the only party whose lawmakers sat on the opposition benches, before they cross the floor to join the government.
The PML-Likeminded, which considers itself to be the opposition party but never received approval for the opposition benches, has been clamouring to elect its chief, former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, as the opposition leader of the house. Sources say that the disgruntled lawmakers intend to nominate Jam Madad Ali as the opposition leader after they are allowed to sit on the opposition benches. Jam Madad once served as the opposition leader in the provincial assembly for nearly three years.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.
As the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party continues to put out fires that broke out after the new local government ordinance was brought forward, lawmakers from its coalition partners on Tuesday decided to desert it and head for the opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly.
The decision came after five ministers, belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), and the National Peoples Party (NPP), had resigned the same night that the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) reached consensus over the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, 2012.
At an hour-long meeting at the residence of PML-F’s Jam Madad Ali, the MPAs decided to jointly apply to the Speaker of the Sindh Assembly to give them the opposition benches. If this goes through, the house of elected representatives would finally have some form of an opposition, which it has been missing since July 2011.
Nationalist parties in Sindh have planned mass protests against the new ordinance on September 13. A number of parties, including the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam and Tehreek-e-Insaf have supported it.
Addressing a press conference, Imtiaz Sheikh and Jam Madad Ali regretted that they were not consulted while the PPP was negotiating the local government law with the MQM. The PPP was staging a “drama in the name of reconciliation” as it had negotiated with only “one party” and ignored the rest of its coalition partners.
NPP’s Arif Jatoi declared that they would oppose the ordinance whenever it was introduced in the provincial assembly and “would continue to struggle until it is withdrawn.”
The NPP has three seats in the Sindh Assembly and two in the National Assembly. The party has yet to decide if it wants to join the opposition benches in the NA as well or not.
Jam Madad said that the newly formed opposition group would also submit a requisition to summon an assembly session so that a debate could take place. He lamented that even after though five days had passed, the government had not promulgated the ordinance by publishing it in the official gazette. “We demand the government take all stakeholders into confidence and implement a uniform system for the whole province,” he said.
Revival of the opposition
If this goes through, the Sindh Assembly will see a 16-member opposition. However, the provincial government is under no threat of collapsing as the PPP controls the lion’s share of 96 seats in the provincial assembly. The MQM holds the next biggest chunk with its 51 seats. If the ANP and the two undecided members of the PML-Q join the Opposition its strength would increase to 20.
The opposition leader
There has been no opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly for the last one and a half years. After the 2008 elections, the PML-F was the only party whose lawmakers sat on the opposition benches, before they cross the floor to join the government.
The PML-Likeminded, which considers itself to be the opposition party but never received approval for the opposition benches, has been clamouring to elect its chief, former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, as the opposition leader of the house. Sources say that the disgruntled lawmakers intend to nominate Jam Madad Ali as the opposition leader after they are allowed to sit on the opposition benches. Jam Madad once served as the opposition leader in the provincial assembly for nearly three years.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.