Acting Speaker Shehla Raza said, on Thursday, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would be allotted opposition seats in the Sindh Assembly.
Following the announcement, MQM replaced Syed Sardar Ahmed with Amir Moin Peerzada, the chairman of Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health, as their opposition leader nominee.
The MQM had asked the Shehla Raza to approve their application, to sit on opposition benches, on February 25. The party leaders announced their exit from the ruling coalition forthwith.
The MQM said last week that their party was the second largest in the assembly with 50 Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) so their nominated candidate should be appointed the opposition leader. The application had 20 MPA’s of the party as signatories.
The MQM had quit the coalition government due to the withdrawl of the Sindh Peoples’ Local Government Act of 2012 earlier this month and made the decision to sit on opposition benches. Party leaders said the PPP were patronising the criminals of Peoples’ Aman Committee and perpetrators of target killings in Lyari by withdrawing cases.
