Open House: Transfer of power begins in Sindh and K-P

PPP again in the driver’s seat in Sindh; a fledgling PTI takes the reins in K-P.

PESHAWAR/ KARACHI:

It was pandemonium. The galleries overflowed with hundreds of visitors, the rules of the house were violated and the speaker himself could barely be heard over the full-throated shouting of political slogans. This was the state of the Sindh Assembly as it held its first session after the May 11 elections.

The session started around 11:10am with Speaker Nisar Khuhro in the chair. In a clear violation of the rules and procedures of the Sindh Assembly, where speaking and chatting is strictly prohibited during the proceedings, a large number of people affiliated with different parties immediately started chanting slogans. They didn’t stop until the last minutes of the session, when the speaker adjourned the session to meet again on Thursday 9.30 am for the election of speaker, deputy speaker and leader of the house (CM).

Amidst this cacophony, the speaker ordered to start the proceedings with the national anthem, followed by a recitation from the Holy Quran. This brought a few minutes of relative peace and quiet, but the uproar resumed as soon as the recitation ended.

The crowd overflowed from the visitor’s galleries into the press gallery, where political workers tried to occupy seats reserved for journalists. Many workers of different parties were also seen chanting slogans in the governor galleries, which are adjacent to speaker’s chair. The management of the provincial assembly was missing in action, as was its security.

“Please stop chanting slogans. You are not supposed to create a hue and cry here. I will suspend the proceedings if you continue this,” Khuhro said.

But no one paid heed to his repeated warning and the session echoed with the slogans of “Jeay Bhutto”, “Jeay Altaf” and “Bhej Pagara”. The PTI’s supporters also joined in with their own slogans when the elected members of the PTI, Samar Ali Khan and Hafizuddin, after submitting their oath papers to the Secretary Sindh Assembly waved victory signs to their charged supporters standing in the visitors’ galleries.

Before adjourning the session, Khuhro announced the election of the new speaker, deputy speaker and leader of the house on Thursday and asked the members to get nomination forms from the assembly secretariat for their candidates.

A shaky majority for the PPP

After including the reserved seats for women and minorities, the seat strength of the parties is as follows: PPP: 87, MQM 48, PML-N 10, PML-F 10 and PTI 4.  The results of ten provincial assembly seats are withheld following stay orders issued by the court and the election commission’s decision to re-poll these constituencies.

With the MQM in the opposition, the combined strength of the opposition amounts to approximately 73. This could be troublesome for the PPP, as it means they are only two seats ahead of a simple majority.

The new K-P Assembly: out with the old

As opposed to the familiar faces that graced the new Sindh Assembly, the old Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly has been largely swept clean.

121 lawmakers of the Khyber Pakhtukhwa assembly took oath on Wednesday during the maiden session of the newly elected assembly, with Speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagarmati administering the oath to beaming members, the majority of whom had entered the assembly for the first time.

Chagarmati congratulated the newly elected lawmakers, saying that they have been elected to represent the people at a time when a democratically elected government has completed its tenure for the first time in the country’s history.

He also paid tributes to the political leaders, workers and security personnel who shed their blood for the cause of democracy. Expressing his good wishes for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s slogan of change, he hoped that these new members met the expectations of the people who had elected them.

“Our province is suffering due to the intervention of big powers, law and order, power outages and corruption, which has emerged as a huge threat and destroying the system,” he said, while wishing the new government success in overcoming these issues.

But while the incoming treasury benches were all smiles, there seemed to be trouble brewing in the ranks of the opposition after the PPP seemed to extend its support to the PTI.

The PPP’s K-P Assembly members Syed Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, Fakhr Azam Wazir, Saleem Khan and Nighat Orakzai participated in opposition meetings, but after the meeting they met with the nominated CM for K-P Pervez Khattak and decided that they would support the PTI’s choices for Speaker, deputy speaker and CM.

A source within the PPP confirmed that the party would support these nominations, but that the decision of supporting the PTI’s government itself would be taken after consultation with the PPP’s provincial president Anwar Saifullah and its central leadership. Sources say the ANP will also not oppose the PTI’s choices for speaker, deputy speaker and CM.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2013.