KARACHI - The joint opposition of the MQM, PML-F and the PML-N on Tuesday submitted joint requisition to convene the Sindh Assembly session to discuss the amendments in the Sindh Local Government Law 2013 recently made by the PPP.
According to them this law is a plot to rig the local government elections.
MQM’s parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed, PML-F’s Jam Madad Ali and PML-N’s parliamentary leader Irfanullah Marwat submitted a joint application in the office of secretary of the provincial assembly. It requested the Speaker to summon the provincial legislature as the opposition parties wanted to discuss the amendments recently made by the Sindh government and delimitation of constituencies in the province.
According to the rules of procedures, the Speaker is legally bound to convene the Sindh Assembly session within 14 days from submitting of the requisition. But in the meantime, the Sindh government can convene the session to take up the official business.
It may be noted the PTI opted not to sign the requisition of the opposition parties for the assembly session.
The opposition leaders while criticising the Sindh government said the PPP won the elections but it lost the mandate through running the government by issuing ordinances.
PML-F leader Jam Madad Ali said ordinances amending the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 were not acceptable and delimitations were the pre-poll rigging.
“Instead of issuing ordinances, the government should have brought the lawmakers into confidence on the changes in the local government,” he added.
PML-N leader Irfanullah Marwat said joint opposition would not let the PPP government to snatch the LG polls through plots of rigging. MQM leader Sardar Ahmed demanded the government to withdraw the ordinances which are illegal.
Meanwhile, rejecting the allegations of the opposition parties, the Sindh Minister for Information, Archives and Local Government Sharjeel Memon has said the Sindh government would summon the Sindh Assembly session shortly in response to the requisition of the Opposition.
He said the political parties that were making hue and cry over the promulgation of the amended SLGO had in fact accepted their defeat prior to entering the contests for the local bodies’ polls and hence putting baseless and false accusations on the government.
The minister said the Sindh Assembly would soon debate the matter. The forthcoming LB polls in the province would be free, fair and transparent and the results would also be quite different.
It was the matter of past when the polling stations were forcefully occupied and public mandate was stolen through rigging. This time, no such practice would be possible as the Sindh government would take appropriate measures to keep the sanctity of voters’ opinions and decisions, he said.
Memon has said these parties were the ally to the military dictator Pervez Musharraf and had accepted his flawed and undemocratic decisions.
It was an irony that MQM was making hue and cry over the promulgation of the amended SLGO-2013 while ignoring the fact that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, who is from the MQM, had signed the ordinance.