SA speaker says caretaker chief minister to be appointed before April 7
KARACHI: Speaker Sindh Assembly (SA) Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Thursday said that the issue of appointment of the Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly could be settled when the petition filed by Arbab Ghulam Rahim is decided by courts of law.
Talking to media at his office here , the Speaker said that former chief minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim and MPA from Muslim League (Functional) Ms Nusrat Sehr Abbasi submitted their separate applications with the Assembly secretariat for the position of the Leader of Opposition.
However, he said, the House had earlier suspended Arbab Rahim’s membership and he had challenged the suspension in the court. After the court decision about restoration of Rabab’s membership or otherwise, the issue of appointment of the Leader of Opposition would be dealt on merit. He said that Ameer Nawab of Awami National Party (ANP) had resigned from the post of Sindh minister but he would not be declared as a member of the Opposition till his resignation is accepted.
He said that PML-F, National People’s Party, Muslim League (like-minded) and ANP are not part of Sindh government and their MPAs are 24 whereas only 10 opposition MPAs have signed the application of Nusrat Sehr Abbasi for the post of the Leader of Opposition. Some of these signataries are not Parliamentary Leaders of their parties. He questioned that whether the MPAs signing the application in place of their Parliamentary Leaders would be sued for the alleged floor-crossing.
He said the implementation of the procedure of appointment of the Leader of Opposition defined under 18th amendment of the Constitution was also awaited.
He assured the opposition parties that caretaker chief minister would be appointed through dialogue before April 7, 2013 when Sindh Assembly will complete its tenure.
Khuhro said that census had been completed in the province and there was need for delimitation in the province. The existing constituencies are based on the census in 1998.
The Opposition parties were protesting against the verification process of voters lists not against the revised constituencies.