The newly elected members of the Sindh Assembly took oath Saturday. Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who will relinquish the office after the election of his successor, administered the oath to 161 MPs. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has 89 MPs, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) 51 members, Functional League 9, Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) 8, the National People's Party (NPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) 2. The session was prorogued after the oath taking to be convened on Monday against for the election of the speaker, deputy speaker and chief minister. Syed Qaim Ali Shah of the PPP will be elected chief minister while its Nisar Khuhro speaker. Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ebad would administer the oath of the new chief minister on Tuesday who would take the vote of confidence from the Sindh Assembly the same evening. The session began last with extraordinary rush in the visitors' galleries. A number of visitors occupied even officials' and speaker's galleries that they entered after breaking the doors. The visitors were also seen in the corridors of the assembly building and the lobbies raising slogans of Jiay Bhutto. The PPP MPs wore black bands and Khuhro said they did so to mourn the death of their leader Benazir Bhutto. The speaker appealed to the visitors that they should be mindful of the rules. But they did not pay heed to his appeal and slogan raising continued where after Khuhro had to appeal to PPP workers to show discipline. “We show great respect to assemblies and Ms Bhutto laid down her life for sanctity of these institutions and it is our responsibility to preserve the same.” On the occasion Pir Mazharul Huq, leader of the PPP parliamentary party, referred to assassination of Ms Bhutto as a national tragedy and requested the Speaker that rules be relaxed to offer prayer for the departed soul. __
