Sindh Assembly likely to meet on November 4

Karachi
The long overdue session of Sindh Assembly, which hasn’t been convened for the past 79 days, is likely to be called on November 4, announced parliamentary affairs and environment minister Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro on Saturday.
Talking to the media after attending the convocation of a private IT university, he said the government was in the process of finalising the draft of a bill calling for the establishment of a provincial accountability commission which might be tabled in the upcoming assembly for debate by the lawmakers.
He said government officials were consulting with political quarters concerned over the proposed legislation being drafted for the formation of an accountability commission.
The last session of the Sindh Assembly was held on August 12, the day when lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had resigned from the provincial and national assemblies, and also the Senate to protest against what they described the biased nature of the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi.
The Sindh Assembly in its last session — sans the lawmaker from opposition party MQM — had unanimously passed into law the Sindh Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill 2015 for allowing Pakistanis with dual nationalities to contest the local government elections.
The Sindh Assembly is also yet to give a formal approval to the year-long extension to the stay of Rangers in the province for the aid of civil administration and extension in validity of anti-terror policing powers of the paramilitary force in Karachi Division.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in a meeting held on September 17, had decided to constitute a provincial Ehtesab commission for which necessary law would be enacted through the assembly.
The chief minister had also decided to establish the province’s own accountability commission in light of the ongoing crackdown of the federal accountability and investigative agencies against alleged corrupt provincial authorities.