PPP nominates Agha Siraj Durrani for PA speaker’s slot

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which is all set to form its third successive government in Sindh, on Saturday formally nominated its MPAs-elect Agha Siraj Khan Durrani and Rehana Leghari for the posts of the Sindh Assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker for its upcoming five-year term.

The decision was taken by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during a meeting at Bilawal House where a discussion was held on the new parliamentary party of the PPP in the provincial assembly.

Asif Ali Zardari, former Pakistan president and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians chief, especially attended the meeting for a brief period. The PPP chairman also nominated Syed Murad Ali Shah for the post of Sindh chief minister for the upcoming term of his party’s government in the province.

The elections for the offices of speaker and deputy speaker of the provincial assembly are likely to be held on August 15, after the inaugural session of the House begins on August 13 with the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected lawmakers.

Agha Siraj Durrani is currently also the acting Sindh governor. Mohammad Zubair’s resignation as the last full-time governor of the province was accepted earlier this month.

If elected, Durrani, who is an MPA of the PPP from District Shikarpur, will become the speaker of the provincial legislature for the second consecutive term.

Rehana Leghari, who has been nominated for the post of deputy speaker, belongs to District Thatta. She is an MPA-elect of the PPP on a reserved seat for women.

In the previous Sindh Assembly, she was also an MPA on a reserved seat. She has also served as the special assistant to the provincial chief executive on human rights. If elected, she will replace Shehla Raza of the PPP, who served as deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly for two consecutive terms.

Addressing the meeting on the PPP’s parliamentary group, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the newly elected MPAs that the people had accorded high expectations to the party by electing them for the third consecutive time to govern the province.

He asked the parliamentary party to forget the past decade in government and get ready for more transparent and merit-based governance to deliver to the people.

The PPP chairman stressed that the issues of water, health and education should be the top priorities of the new provincial government, saying that there would be no lifetime chief minister or ministers, as he himself would be monitoring the performance of everyone, including the MPAs.

The younger Zardari also said that various puppets were cobbled together to challenge the PPP in Sindh in last month’s general elections, but they were defeated with the support of the people.

He said that another group of puppets was being inducted into the federal government, but he vowed that the PPP would expose their insincerity as well and put them to rout.

He told the MPAs-elect that “all of you are part of my team and I expect the best performance from you to revive the glorious past of the party across the country”.

Former chief executives Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Syed Murad Ali Shah, Faryal Talpur, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, General Secretary Waqar Mehdi and Information Secretary Aajiz Dhamrah were also present on the occasion.

Talking to the media outside Bilawal House after the meeting, former Sindh information minister and PPP leader Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that in the polls the people of the province had rejected the alliance of anti-PPP political parties.

He said the PPP would provide time to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to demonstrate how well it can perform in the federal government during its first 100 days.

He added that the Peoples Party, under the leadership of its chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, would give surprising results in the next general elections expected to be held in 2023.