PA again passes two bills returned by governor without assent

Amid the opposition’s vociferous protest causing disorder in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh on Monday, the legislature again passed two bills that were returned by the governor without his assent, one of which would make in-service bureaucrats without PhD degrees eligible to become vice chancellors of public universities.

The PA again separately adopted the Sindh Universities & Institutes Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill. The House had passed the two bills in the previous session but they were returned to the assembly after Governor Kamran Khan Tessori raised objections to them.

During the passage of the two bills, the opposition legislators gathered near the PA speaker’s rostrum to protest. They also tore the bills’ copies and shouted slogans against the provincial government’s alleged plans to occupy public universities, and usurp their administrative and financial autonomy.

Speaking on a point of order, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon condemned the unruly conduct of the opposition lawmakers. He censured the MPAs of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for joining hands to cause disorder in the House.

Memon said the uproar was caused due to this “unholy” alliance between the legislators of the two opposition political parties. He claimed that the opposition lawmakers did not even go through the contents of the two bills before resorting to their disorderly conduct.

He said the proposed law would make qualified persons from different walks of life eligible to be appointed as VCs of universities. He termed the opposition’s protest a childish act. The opposition lawmakers later walked out of the PA.

The House also unanimously passed a resolution to pay homage to Hazrat Lal Shehbaz Qalandar. The resolution was passed on the occasion of the 777th Urs of the Sufi saint.

The resolution was moved by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Shazia Karim, who is also the parliamentary secretary in the PA for the Auqaf and religious affairs department. The PA session was later prorogued.

Later, talking to the media, PA opposition leader Ali Khursheedi and other opposition lawmakers announced their plans to move the court against the universities & institutes laws (amendment) bill.

Khursheedi claimed that the bill is a move on the part of the provincial government to occupy the universities in the province. He also claimed that the ruling PPP used its “brute” majority in the House to pass the bill.

He opined that the bill would further ruin the education sector in Sindh. He lamented that the PA again passed the bill, irrespective of the reservations of the concerned stakeholders. He expressed fear that corrupt practices would become rife in the arena of higher education in Sindh after the passage of the law. He said that corrupt practices have become the norm in the rest of the government departments during the PPP’s regime continuing for the past 17 years.

He recalled that the MQM-P’s lawmakers had opposed the bill when it was considered by the PA’s relevant standing committee. He lamented that corrupt practices have been continuing in the educational boards of Sindh.