KARACHI -  PPP’s provincial President Syed Qaim Ali was elected as Chief Minister of Sindh with simple majority on Thursday, making hat-trick of governing the province.
After being elected as Chief Executive of the province, Qaim Ali Shah took oath as Sindh Chief Minister from Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan.
The House also elected PPP’s Agha Siraj Durrani as Speaker and Mrs Shehla Raza as Deputy Speaker of Sindh Assembly with majority votes, defeating their challengers.
After the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the House was divided to elect the new Leader of the House/Chief Minister of the Sindh province. The lawmakers by standing on their feet voted for the candidates of their choice for the Leader of the House.  Through division in the House, a simple majority of the 86 MPAs voted in favour of the PPP’s Syed Qaim Ali Shah, electing him as Chief Minister of Sindh for third time amid cheering of slogans of “Jeay Bhutto-Jeay Benazir” in the galleries by visitors. Shah’s competitors-Syed Sardar Ahmed of MQM secured 48 votes, while PML-F and PML-N’s joint candidate Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh got 18 votes, while PTI’s three members did not take part in the voting for the Leader of the House.
About 152 of 155 total MPAs, who took oath as members of the Sindh Assembly, were present during the election for the Leader of the House.
When Speaker announced the results that Qaim Ali Shah was elected as Chief Minister of the province with simple majority, the PPP lawmakers continued thumping of desks with chanting slogans of ‘Jeay Bhutto and Zardari”.
Earlier, the election held for the Speaker of Sindh Assembly through secret ballot papers. By securing highest votes of 87, PPP’s Agha Siraj Durrani was elected as Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, while his challengers-Khawaja Izharul Hassan of MQM took 48 votes and PML-N/PML-F’s joint candidate Irfanullah Marwat got only 18 votes.
Total 155 MPAs used their right of vote in election for Speaker office, of which two votes were declared cancelled. Outgoing Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro administered oath to the newly elected Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.  Later, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who also been elected in general elections, took oath as member of the Sindh Assembly from the newly elected Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.
Meanwhile, the election for the office of Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly was also held through secret ballot papers.
Bagging 86 votes of MPAs, PPP’s Shehla Raza was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly for second term consecutively, while her challenger Heer Soho of MQM secured 48 votes and PML-F/PML-N’s joint candidate Nusrat Sehar Abbasi got only 18 votes.
PTI MPas didn’t take part in the elections for the Deputy Speaker office.
After electing as Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah while addressing the Sindh Assembly said that maintaining law and order and elimination of poverty from the province would be his first priority as Chief Executive of the province.
Qaim Ali Shah thanked the people of Sindh, who entrusted the mandate again to the PPP, vowing that he will come to the expectations of the people of the province. Chief Minister said that he will take the Opposition alongwith him in serving the people of Sindh, claiming that he would make Sindh unique province in terms of spreading net of development and infrastructure schemes.
Earlier, MQM’s Syed Faisal Sabzwari congratulated Syed Qaim Ali Shah as Chief Minister and assured him to extend his party’s cooperation with the government in development works of the province.
He hoped that the new government would take concrete steps to make betterment and ensure law and order situation in the Karachi.
PML-F’s Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh also congratulated Qaim Ali Shah and assured his party’s support in best interest of the province.
He hoped that new government will restore the peace in the province.
PPP leader Nisar Khuhro also congratulated the Chief Minister and said that Sindh always protected democracy in the country.
After congratulations to the newly elected chief minister, the Speaker read the order of the Governor and prorogued the Sindh Assembly for indefinite period.
Meanwhile, after the Assembly session, elected representatives and PPP leaders reached at the Governor’s House, where oath-taking ceremony of newly elected Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah was scheduled.
After CM’s oath-taking ceremony, the governor also administered oath to provincial ministers Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Mir Manzoor Hussain Wassan, Makhdoon Jamil-uz-Zaman, Dr Sikandar Mondrio and Ali Nawaz Mahar.