While the fate of PPP’s MPA-hopeful Waheeda Shah hangs in balance, the son of PPP dissident Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, Hasnain Mirza, took oath as a Member of Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Thursday. Speaker Nisar Khuhro administered the oath to the younger Mirza in the presence of National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmeeda Mirza and other family members in the diplomat’s gallery. Hasnain won the by-poll for PS-57 in Tando Bago Taluka of Badin district after his firebrand father and former home minister, Zulfiqar, vacated the seat by tendering his resignation. “I take the result of this by-poll as a referendum in favour of the present government for what it has done during floods,” said the new PPP lawmaker, in his first speech in the House, amid loud desk thumps. His mother – well acquainted with the assembly rules – was, however, seen restraining a nearby-sitting family member from clapping in the diplomat’s gallery. Khuhro, however, could not succeed in making the PPP “jiyalas” follow the assembly rules of not chanting slogans from the visitors’ gallery time and again. Vowing to serve his constituency, the nation and Pakistan, the younger member of the Mirza clan thanked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and co-chairman President Asif Ali Zardari for reposing confidence in him. However, Thursday’s sitting could not last longer than 95 minutes, including the Question Hour, of its commencement with a routine 90-minute delay at 11:30. In the Question Hour, Sindh Revenue Minister Jam Mehtab Dhar responded to supplementary and starred questions of the members pertaining to his department. Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro laid the Sindh Regularisation of Teachers Appointed on Contract Basis Ordinance, 2012 before the House, while requesting the deferment of the introduction and consideration of Syed Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences Bill, 2012 till Monday. The speaker then announced the Sindh governor’s assent to the Sindh Madressatul Islam University Bill, 2011 and called the day at 1:05 pm, convening to meet again on Friday at 10:00 am, when the lawmakers would take part in Senate elections.
