News
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Transfer of power to new govt starts* Newly elected members of Sindh and KP assemblies take oath
* Election for speakers, deputy speakers today
By Iqbal Khattak
PESHAWAR: The newly elected members of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took oath on Wednesday, with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa opposition and government benches making pledges to work together to steer the province out of crises.
Outgoing speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmatti administered the oath to 121 members of the House. JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani, Ameer Haider Hoti and JUI-F’s Naeema Kishwar were absent from the proceedings. Sources close to JUI-F told Daily Times that Durrani might retain the National Assembly seat instead of that of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, as he is one of the stronger contenders for the federal ministry Nawaz Sharif will offer to the JUI-F if talks between the two sides progressed successfully
Awami National Party, meanwhile, decided to let Hoti keep his National Assembly seat and vacate the provincial assembly seat. The current assembly members include a blend of youth, mostly from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and old, such as Mehtab Khan Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-N. “I hope the new members will come up to the expectations of people of this province solving some of the issues such as chronic corruption problem,” Speaker Chagharmatti spoke in his welcome address.
Surprisingly, neither JUI-F nor the Jamaat-e-Islami took up the US drone strike in North Waziristan, while Pakistan People’s Party MPA Fakhre Azam from Bannu district, gateway to North Waziristan which is referred to as birthplace of Pakistani Taliban, urged the new House members to speed up the process of negotiations with militants to help restore peace in the province.
“As early as possible, get talks with the Taliban started,” the PPP MPA urged the House, adding that drone strikes should halt. “Our issue is law and order situation. Talks should take place with Taliban to help peace restore,” he argued. Meanwhile, Asad Qaiser and Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi of PTI filed nominations for speaker and deputy speaker’s offices. Malik Munawar Khan of JUI-F and Arbab Akbar Hayat of the PML-N will contest against the PTI nominees, according to assembly secretariat. Elections to speaker and deputy speaker’s offices will take place today (Thursday). Leader of the House will be elected on Friday and he will take oath the same day.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister designate Pervez Khan Khattak on Wednesday informed the provincial assembly that all the blast injured would get VIP treatment in the hospitals of the province. In his maiden speech after taking oath as members of the provincial assembly, the CM designate in response to the assertions made by MPA Mufti Janan on the floor of the House, said that he has instructed the officials of the health department to ensure provision of best medical care facilities to those injured in explosions as available to a VIP patient in the hospital.
Meanwhile, some 155 newly elected MPAs of the Sindh Assembly took oath during the inaugural session of the provincial legislative House on Wednesday. Outgoing speaker, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro administered the oath in three languages, Sindhi, Urdu and English, separately. Majority of the PPP and PML-F members took oath in Sindhi while those of the MQM took it in Urdu. PML-N’s Irfanullah Marwat and PTI’s Khurum Sher Zaman took oath in English language.
A large number of workers and supporters of different parties and personalities were present in the visitors’ gallery on the occasion. Great enthusiasm was seen among them during the inaugural session of the newly elected House. Three elected members of the House, former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, PPP’s Shagufta Jumani and PTI’s Sima Zia, were absent in the first session.
Shagufta Jumani did not come to take oath as she was also elected in the National Assembly on seats reserved for women and has vacated her provincial assembly seat. The nomination forms for the election of the speaker and deputy speaker were collected from the office of the acting secretary of the assembly on Wednesday. The election for the posts of the speaker and the deputy speaker will be held today (Thursday).
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk