PPP’s Owais Qadir Shah takes oath as Speaker of Sindh Assembly

Karachi: Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Syed Owais Qadir Shah took oath as 12th Speaker of Sindh Assembly, on Sunday.

The polling was held at assembly session with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair.

Out of one hundred and forty-seven, Syed Owais Qadir Shah secured one hundred and eleven votes while MQM nominated candidate Sofia Shah secured thirty-six votes in the polling.

Later, addressing the session as Speaker, Owais Shah said it was his honour to be elected as the speaker of the Assembly that has a grand history.

He expressed his gratitude to the party leaders for reposing trust in him. He also expressed gratitude to the people of Sindh and the people of his constituency for electing and trusting him to represent them in the Assembly.

On Saturday, the newly elected members of Sindh Assembly took oath during the inaugural session.

The Sindh Assembly session was chaired by outgoing speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, which officially started with the recitation of the Holy Quran.

Agha Siraj Durrani administered the oath to the newly elected members of the Sindh Assembly, among those who took the oath were the nominated Chief Minister of Sindh Murad Ali Shah, Faryal Talpur, Sharjeel Memon, Nasir Hussain Shah and others.

On this occasion, the assembly hall echoed with 'Jiye Bhutto' [Long Live Bhutto] slogans. Members of Sindh Assembly took oath in Urdu, English and Sindhi languages.

Out of 168 members of Sindh Assembly, 114 members belong to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) while 36 members are from Mutahidda Qoumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

Nine members contesting the elections as independents have applied to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to join the Sunni Ittehad Council, while the members of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will not participate in today's ceremony.

On the other hand, the opposition alliance consisting of GDA, JI and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has announced a protest outside the Sindh Assembly, while the Sindh Home Department has imposed Section 144 in Karachi for a month due to lack of peace and security.