Polling underway to elect Sindh Assembly speaker | Maqvi News

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly began on Sunday its polling process to elect the speaker as the newly-elected members started casting their votes via secret ballot. 

The session began with a brief delay after the members of the provincial assembly took oath. 

Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who is chairing the session, briefed the members about the polling process. Following this, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Abdul Basit cast the first vote.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Awais Qadir Shah and MQM-P’s Sofia Saeed are contesting for the speaker’s slot.

Basit is the MQM-P candidate’s polling agent while Zia Linjar was appointed as the PPP candidate’s polling agent. 

Both candidates were given the go-ahead to contest the polls after the scrutiny of their papers.

After the new speaker takes the oath, following the election, the polling will start for the deputy speaker’s slot. PPP’s Anthony Naveed and MQM-P’s Rashid Khan are eyeing the post.

The papers of both candidates have been declared valid. 

9 SIC, 1 JI member takes oath

As the session started, about nine members of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and Jamat-e-Islami’s (JI) Muhammad Farooq, who did not attend the oath-taking ceremony yesterday, took an oath. 

Shabbir Qureshi, Mohammad Owais, Bilal Jadoon, Sajjad Soomro, Rehan Akram, Wajid Hussain, Sarbuland Khan and Sajid Hussain of the SIC took the oath. 

Speaker Durrani welcomed the newly elected members of the SIC.

Following this, PPP’s nominee for chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, said that 12 of their workers were killed during the election campaigns. 

“Our leader Aziz Junejo, who won the elections, passed away. The assembly should pray for them,” said Shah, adding that our country is suffering from terrorism.

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) nominated Sofia Saeed Shah for the speaker’s post and Rashid Khan for the deputy speaker. Their papers have also been declared valid. 

A day earlier, at least 148 newly-elected Sindh Assembly members took oath in the House of 168 as parties took to the streets to hold demonstrations against the alleged rigging in the February 8 polls. 

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PTI and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqiqi), had announced to hold a joint “peaceful” protest outside the assembly.

However, the situation turned tense before the swearing-in ceremony, as several workers, including women, clashed with the police party present there to keep the order.

Over 20 Qaumi Awami Tehreek workers, including women, were arrested and shifted to the police station during the clashes. The law enforcement officials also baton-charged the protestors.

The protests continued for hours and were called off after the police baton-charged and detained at least 30 protesters from near the Arts Council for staging a demonstration and raising slogans in the Red Zone area amid the imposition of Section-144.

On the other hand, the Punjab Assembly on Saturday elected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates Malik Ahmed Khan and Malik Zaheer Ahmed Channer as the House’s speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.