Sindh Assembly convenes at last

After a delay of more than two months, the Sindh provincial assembly members were finally sworn in yesterday as pro-military political parties prepared to form a coalition, keeping former premier Benazir Bhutto's party out of power in her home province.

The supporters belonging to various political parties shouted slogans from the visitors' gallery as former speaker Jalal Mahmood Shah administered the oath to the newly elected members of the provincial assembly.

The emotionally charged followers belonging to the Pakistan People's Party shouted "Jeay (long live) Bhutto" from the packed vistors' galleries violating the decorum of the house, while their rivals belonging to the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement added to the clamour with "Jeay Altaf Hussain" and "Jeay Mohajir" slogans.

Supporters of the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, the alliance of religious parties were not far behind in the shouting match with slogans of Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great).

Nisar Khoro, parliamentary leader of the PPP, and several other lawmakers tried to address the house, but were interrupted by the speaker, who kept reminding the members that the agenda's for yesterday's session was confined just to the oath taking.

Finally, the speaker ordered the microphones switched off in an attempt to bring some order to the house. Sindh's Assembly noisy return to democracy underlined the fact that the rival political parties are in the mood to go for the kill from the very start.

"After three years of military rule we have an assembly session, but members are not allowed to speak," Khoro said. "They deprived us of our democratic right," he told reporters.

The PPP, which won 67 seats to emerge as the largest group in the 168-member house, was in no position to form a government as it failed to win the support of any other group in the hung assembly.

The pro-military political parties are all set to form a fractured coalition led by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qauid-e-Azam) here which has only 15 seats of its own in the assembly. The Mutahidda, which has 41 seats, and other smaller groups have joined hands to support the PML-QA candidate Ali Mohammed Mehar for the slot of the chief minister after weeks of hectic wheeling and dealing.

The Sindh Assembly session had been postponed twice as no group managed to form a government. The PPP said that the delay was caused to prevent it from coming to the power and put pressure on its lawmakers to change their loyalties.

Ten PPP lawmakers in the National Assembly have already formed a forward bloc and joined Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's government.

Mehar, while talking to the reporters hinted that some members of the PPP would also support him in the election for the chief minister set for Monday.

"There are our friends in the PPP and I hope some of them would come to us," he said. "We have a majority and we would prove it." The MQM leaders have been claiming that their candidate would secure more than 85 votes. Elections for the slot of speaker and deputy speaker will be held tomorrow.

The candidates have been asked to file nomination papers today.

The MMA, which has 10 seats in the provincial assembly, is the only group which has pledged loyalty to neither of the sides.

The religious alliance has promised to support the candidate who promises to accept 27 of its demand which calls for the strict implementation of Islamic law. But major political parties have not tried to woo the hardline Islamic alliance.