Punjab Assembly elects speaker amid rumpus

LAHORE/KARACHI: Punjab and Sindh assemblies on Saturday witnessed ruckus in and outside the houses as newly-elected members of the provincial legislatures took oath. In the case of Punjab Assembly, the MPAs also elected speaker and deputy speaker.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Malik Ahmad Khan, the joint candidate of PMLN and its coalition parties, was elected as the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly by securing 224 votes.

The Punjab Assembly session to elect the House’s speaker and deputy speaker kicked off on Saturday evening after a delay of one-and-a-half hours as protests marred the beginning of the meeting.

Before voting for the speaker, there was a ruckus in the Punjab Assembly as the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) members raised slogans against the PMLN leadership, especially when chief minister nominee Maryam Nawaz entered the house. After the speaker’s election, the voting for the deputy speaker was started. As per the final counting, a total of 322 votes were cast out of which PMLN’s Malik Ahmed Khan got 224 votes and SIC’s Ahmad Khan Bhachar bagged 96 votes. Two votes were rejected during the counting. Speaker Punjab Assembly Sibtain Khan announced the result and shook hands with the newly-elected speaker. After the announcement of result, the House echoed with victory slogans. Maryam Nawaz also congratulated Malik Ahmed Khan and waved her hands to the house.

As the session started and Maryam Nawaz entered the House, the SIC members raised slogans against the PMLN leadership. In response, the PMLN members also chanted slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership.

Earlier, Speaker Sibtain Khan administered the oath to the four newly-elected members.

After taking the oath, Speaker Malik Ahmed Khan took over the speaker’s chair and started the process of deputy speaker’s election. The voting for deputy speaker’s slot was held in which the PMLN candidate Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar secured 220 votes while SIC candidate Moen Riaz got 103 votes.

For the election of the speaker and deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly, two polling booths were established in the House.

The nomination papers of PMLN candidate Malik Ahmad Khan and SIC’s Ahmed Khan Bhachar were approved for the speaker, while the papers of Zaheer Iqbal Chanar of PMLN and Moin Riaz of SIC were also approved.

The election of the new speaker and deputy speaker was done by secret ballot and privacy was ensured by installing curtains and a canopy at the polling booths.

PMLN sources said that the party had decided to form the provincial cabinet in a phased manner. The sources claimed it had been decided to give ministries to 15 members of the assembly in the first phase, while in the second phase, 7 more members will take oath as ministers. Some independent members will also be represented in the cabinet. It was also decided that a performance audit of all the ministers in the cabinet will be done on regular basis.

PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Malik Ahmad Khan on his success and said the new Speaker would run the house in a better way.

Meanwhile, as many as 147 newly-elected members of the Sindh Assembly took the oath of their office as MPAs on Saturday in the inaugural session of the new house of provincial legislature amid high security.

Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani chaired the inaugural session of the 16th house of the Sindh Assembly, which came into existence as a result of the February 8 general elections.

PPP Senator Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, despite being elected as an MPA in the general election, didn’t take the oath. Khuhro witnessed the proceedings of the inaugural session from the speaker’s gallery.

The speaker welcomed the newly-elected MPAs and expressed the hope that the proceedings of the house would be conducted as per the democratic traditions and the lawmakers-elect would work together in the assembly.

He said the protesting political parties staging the protest outside the Sindh Assembly had no valid cause for agitation as they had been rejected by the people in the general elections.

Former Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah advised the speaker that he should first take the oath of office as an MPA before administrating oath to the rest of the lawmakers-elect. The speaker then took the oath.

The speaker administered the oath to newly-elected MPAs. As many as 111 newly-elected MPAs out of 147 legislators-elect, who took oath in the inaugural session of the Sindh Assembly, belonged to the Pakistan Peoples Party while the rest 36 lawmakers belonged to Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan. The PPP as the majority party in the house is all set to form the next Sindh government for the consecutive fourth time.

MPAs-elect belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami, Grand Democratic Alliance and independent legislators-elect backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf didn’t come to the house for oath-taking under their joint protest drive against the alleged rigging in February 8 general elections.

In the inaugural session, a total of 16 legislators-elect didn’t come to the house to take the oath. These included three MPAs-elect from the PPP, three MPAs from GDA, nine PTI-backed MPAs-elect and a legislator-elect from the JI. The speaker expressed serious resentment when the people sitting in the visitors gallery resorted to political sloganeering. Durrani warned that he would be compelled to order the assembly staff to get the visitors gallery vacated if order was not maintained in the assembly. Some 61 legislators took the oath as an MPA for the first time.

Former Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Khuhro and Nadir Magsi have become MPAs for the eighth time while Speaker Durrani has become a member of the Sindh Assembly for the seventh time. PPP’s lawmaker Sohrab Sarki has become an MPA for the sixth time. Some 10 other PPP legislators have become MPAs for the fifth time.

The elections of the new speaker and deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly will be held on Sunday (today) at 11am.

The nomination papers of the candidates desirous to contest the polls for speaker and deputy speaker were received by 5 pm on Saturday. The PPP nominated its MPAs Syed Awais Qadir Shah for Speaker and Anthony Naved for Deputy Speaker of the house.

As the session was going on, several political workers, including women, clashed with the police outside the Sindh Assembly.

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PTI and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi), had announced to hold a joint “peaceful” protest against the alleged rigging in the February 8 general elections.

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

Earlier, GDA Information Secretary Sardar Abdul Raheem said that their protest in Sindh was against the theft of people’s mandate, warning that the demonstrations would keep intensifying till their mandate was returned. He said that a peaceful protest was their right and the government should avoid using force against them.

Caravans of various political parties coming from different parts of Sindh were stopped on the outskirts of the metropolis. The caretaker Sindh government had imposed Section 144 in the South Zone in anticipation of the protest by the political parties.

“... the Government of Sindh, in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 144 (6) Cr.PC, hereby imposes a ban on public assembly, gatherings, protests, processions, and demonstrations in South Zone Karachi Division for 30 days with immediate effect,” stated the provincial government’s notification issued late Friday.

All the arteries leading to the Sindh Assembly were blocked by placing containers on them. The road leading to Burns Road from the Sindh Assembly was also blocked.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG), South, Asad Raza, said that a large police force had been deployed on Shahrah-e-Faisal for security and also around the Sindh Assembly.

These protests paralysed the city’s life for several hours. Incidents of clashes between the police and protesters were witnessed, resulting in the detention of over 150 individuals, including women, by the police. The detainees were taken to different police stations and later most of them were released in the night.

Ambulances remained stuck in traffic jams for many hours due to traffic congestion. Inter-city bus terminals were also closed until the evening and flights experienced delays. Residents were stranded in their homes due to the protests. Sindh Home Department had already imposed section 144 in the red zone area in Karachi for one month.

The most intense clashes with the police involved JUI workers.

To deal with the situation, more than 2,500 police officers were deployed across the city. In addition, officers from other law enforcement agencies were also deployed to deal with miscreants in the red zones of District South.

The GDA, JI, PTI and other parties that are protesting against the alleged rigging in the elections have announced to observe a ‘black day’ in Sindh on February 27.

The announcement was made by the leaders of these political parties who converged at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday to stage a protest sit-in, after overcoming the obstacles put by police in an attempt to stop them from reaching the Sindh Assembly where the newly-elected MPAs were taking oath.

JUIF Sindh leader Rashid Mahmood Soomro staged a sit-in on Shahrah-e-Faisal near Nursery bus stop after police stopped his convoy from moving forward.

In a video released by his party, Soomro was also shown with a minor injury on his leg, which was allegedly caused after the police used force to disperse the protesters.

Several other videos caught on camera by media persons showed workers of different political parties being arrested by the police and baton charged.

A video showed police dragging two young female workers of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek into a van. Speaking to the protest sit-in outside the KPC, Karachi JI leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that they were protesting because their mandate was stolen and given to usurpers through rigging.

Rehman claimed that in Karachi only PTI and JI had gained votes, while MQMP was nowhere to be seen yet it was given seats that they had never won in their history. He added that in other parts of Sindh, GDA and JUI-F had won but their mandate was snatched and given to the PPP.

Rejecting the election results, GDA leader Safdar Abbasi said that they would not let the “fake system” run and would not accept the “fake elections” at any cost.

He claimed that hundreds of workers of the protesting political parties were arrested and put behind bars, only to facilitate the oath-taking ceremony of a “fake” assembly.

PTI Sindh president Haleem Adil Sheikh called the PMLN, PPP and MQMP “mandate thieves”, saying that an unprecedented massive rigging occurred on February 8.

The leaders of GDA, PTI, JI and JUI-F demanded immediate release of political workers arrested by police and said that they would announce their future course of action soon.

Flight operation at the Karachi airport was also disturbed as many passengers could not reach the terminal in time because of the blockades. In the meantime, the railways authorities established two temporary stops for trains at Drigh Road and Landhi stations.

Later, GDA activists in Sukkur, Shahdadpur, Larkana, Shikarpur and other cities took out rallies and staged sit-ins against the “torture, violence and arrest of GDA workers in Karachi” when they were peacefully protesting against the alleged rigging in the Feb 8 elections.

The protesters blamed that police torture, violence and arrest of protesting GDA workers in Karachi was totally illegal and against the freedom of expression. They said that in a democracy, every citizen had the right to protest and said that GDA protest was peaceful, but the police, after creating obstacles, had used teargas shells and rubber bullets in which JUIF Secretary General Rashid Mahmood Soomro and many others were injured.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali approved the summary for convening the maiden session of the provincial assembly on February 28.

Most of the members of the KP Assembly have been notified after their victory in the February 8 general election. The result of some of the constituencies was officially notified on Friday after it was stopped as the runner-up candidates had challenged the victory of rivals. Also, elections have been postponed or results are yet to be announced in six constituencies.

Over 50 members of the KP Assembly were elected for the first time as the majority of seasoned politicians failed to win their seats.

Separately, Balochistan Governor Malik Abdul Wali Khan Kakar has convened an assembly session on February 28 (Wednesday) at the Balochistan Assembly Building, during which newly-elected members of the provincial assembly will take oath.

The outgoing Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali, will preside over the session and take the oath from elected MPAs.

After oath taking by the newly-elected members of provincial legislature, the schedule for the election of speaker and deputy speaker will be announced.