The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday put off the hearing of petition of MPAs seeking appointment of the opposition leader in Sindh Assembly. Petitioners Jam Madad Ali, Nusrat Bano Saher Abbasi, Muhammed Shaharyar Khan Mahar, Muhammad Rafique Banbhan, Rahim Bux Bozdar, Rana Abdul Sattar, Qazi Shams Din Rajar, Ali Ghulam Nizamani, Syeda Marvi Rashdi, and Mir Abid Hussain Jatoi cited federal law secretary, Sindh chief secretary, provincial law secretary, speaker and deputy speaker of the provincial assembly as respondents.
All petitioners, mostly comprising of members of the provincial assembly and belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), except Muhammad Shaharyar Khan Mahar, who belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (Like-minded), submitted that a total strength of the provincial assembly was 186, out of which 130 were general seats while 29 were reserved for women and nine for non-Muslims. They submitted that they were all members of the opposition group in the provincial assembly and they were constitutionally and legally entitled to nominate any member as leader of opposition amongst them to run the business of the assembly.
They stated that while exercising such right they unanimously nominated Nusrat Bano Saher Abbasi to be the opposition leader of Sindh Assembly, adding they moved an application to speaker provincial assembly duly received by the Sindh Assembly deputy secretary on December 19 last year informing him about nomination.
They submitted that after receipt of the application, the speaker was legally bound to allocate seats to opposition members in the assembly so as to complete the house and to conduct and run affairs of the assembly smoothly and in accordance with the mandate given under the constitution. They contended that the provincial assembly was completing its term on March 23, adding that per law and constitution under article 224 and 224-A the president in consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, could appoint a caretaker chief minister. They pointed that it was therefore abundantly clear that in absence of the leader of the opposition, a caretaker cabinet was also not yet appointed.
