KARACHI (Dunya News) - The Sindh Assembly will elect its Leader of the House today (Monday), for which Sayed Murad Ali Shah of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Ali Khursheedi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) will be the contesting candidates.
Sindh Assembly has been in session since February 24, and on the first day, 147 members out of 168 took the oath as MPAs. As per schedule, the election for Speaker and Deputy Speaker was held on Sunday.
Sayed Awais Qadir Shah and Anthony Naveed of the Pakistan People's Party were elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively, by securing 111 votes each. MQM-P’s candidates Sofia Shah and Rashid Khan secured only 36 votes each, while nine members of the Suni Itehad Council and one of the Jamaat-e-Islami did not take part in the voting process.
As many as 158 members of the provincial assembly were present in the PA session on Sunday.
Of them, 147 took part in voting for the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House, while 10 members abstained.
Outgoing Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani chaired the session and conducted the Speaker's election as per the Rules of the business of the Sindh Assembly. After taking the oath as Speaker, Sayed Awais Qadir Shah took over charge of the House and chaired the session.
The newly elected Speaker conducted a session and supervised the process of electing the Deputy Speaker. As per the schedule of the Assembly Secretariat, the nomination papers have been submitted by interested candidates, and after scrutiny, a list of contrasting candidates will be issued by the Assembly Secretary later in the evening. The election of the Leader of the House (Chief Minister) will be held in the Sindh Assembly on Monday at about 11 am.