KARACHI - Acting Sindh Governor Agha Siraj Durrani Friday approved a summary to requisite the first session of the newly elected Sindh Assembly on August 13.
Governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair Umar had resigned from his post and therefore the Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani is serving as the acting governor Sindh.
The notification issued by the law and parliamentary affairs department stated that the assembly would meet at the provincial assembly building at 10am.
The newly elected members of the assembly would take oath of their responsibilities on the first day of the assembly on August 13. Speaker Sindh Assembly is authorised to take oath from the members but since the speaker is serving as acting governor he could not perform such duty, he would nominate any other person from the house for the purpose.
On the same day of the oath-taking, the nomination papers for the aspiring candidates for the speaker and deputy speaker would submit their names and under Rule 7 of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh any member may propose or second the name of any member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker.
The election process for the new speaker and deputy speaker would take place on August 15. On the same day, the nomination papers for the leader of the house or the chief minister would be submitted and a scrutiny process would be carried out on it on 16 August.
The election for the chief minister would be held on 17 August and the chief minister would take oath of his responsibilities the same day from governor Sindh or who has the acting charge.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Assembly secretariat is yet to receive the notifications for the victory of the candidates despite an official announcement of the victory on its website.
Jamal Siddiqui, who is a deputy information secretary, on Friday met with the Secretary Sindh Assembly over the issue. The two along with consultation of other parties agreed over a strategy that the top leaders of the parties would identify their members at the entrance. Siddiqui further informed that the election commission is yet to notify the members on the reserved seat and if delayed it might be possible that they could not attend the first assembly sitting.
The PPP has a clear majority in the 168-member house which also includes 130 directly elected general seats along with 38 reserved seats, including 27 for women and nine for minorities.
The party has won 76 general seats and is likely to have at least 16 women MPAs on reserved seatsand five minorities seats.
The PTI being the second largest party with 23 seats could bag five seats for women and two of minorities. MQM with 17 seats and GDA with 11 members in the assembly could bag four and two seats on women quota respectively along with one each on minorities reserved seats. Two members of TLP and an MMA member is also part of the provincial assembly.
The PPP has unofficially nominated Murad Ali Shah as its candidate for the chief minister slot and the party would also easily grab the seats of speaker and deputy speaker.
The opposition parties even if united are no way near the treasury benches. Even the opposition is yet to decide on any consensus candidate for opposition leader.
The PTI is a leading opposition party and GDA is supporting it in the federal government but in Sindh it is yet to decide to whether it would be supporting MQM-P or PTI for the opposition leader slot.
Meanwhile, sources had also informed that negotiations were also underway to devise a formula for GDA-MQM-P opposition leader with both parties taking the slot for half of the five year tenure.
The MQM-P has also openly opposed PTI candidate Firdous Shmim Nqvi s opposition leader after his open criticism on MQM-P despite getting support in federal government.
