KARACHI - The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed The Prohibition of Preparation, Manufacturing, Storage, Sale and Use of Gutka and Manpuri (Amendment) Bill, 2021, paving the way to try the accused in First Class Judicial Magistrate.
The bill was initially passed in December 2019 and after the recent amendment, now the accused would be tried at First Class Judicial Magistrate instead of Sessions Court. After the enactment of the amended bill, all the cases pending before the Sessions Courts would be transferred to courts of Judicial Magistrate. As per the the bill passed in December 2019, no person could produce, prepare, possess, offer for sale, distribute, import, export and deliver Gutka,  Mainpuri.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Rabita Committee on Thursday nominated its female lawmaker Ms. Rana Ansar for Leader of Opposition slot in the Sindh Assembly. Incumbent opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Haleem Adil Sheikh along with other party members had not been attending the Sindh Assembly sessions since 9th May’s violent protests aftermath of Imran Khan’s arrest.
In a statement issued here, the MQM-P’s Rabita Committee nominated its parliamentary leader Ms Rana Ansar for the slot and named MPA from Baldia Town Ali Khurshidi as her replacement. If Ms. Rana Ansar able to get the support of required oppostion members, she would be  first woman leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly.
Talking to The Nation, Ali Khurshi, currently the MQM-P’s deputy Parliamentary leader in the Assembly, said that they were very hopeful to get support from the Grand Democratic Alliance to get Ms Rana Ansar appointed as leader of opposition. He said that the party’s delegation led by Senior Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar had earlier met fhe top leadership of the GDA and sought its support.
“Hopefully, we will get support from the GDA,” he added.
Currently, there were 69 opposition members in the Sindh Assembly in 168-member house, meaning that a member could be appointed as leader of opposition if he or she got support from at least 35 legislators. The PTI was the largest opposition party with 30 lawmakers but at least nine of them  defied from the party policy. Shaheryar Khan Shar, Karim Bakhsh Gabol, Sachand Lakhwani Sachal and Muhammad Aslam Abro left the PTI way earlier while Omar Omari, Dr Imran Ali Shah, Malik Shahzad Awan, Sanjay Gangwani and Abbas Jafferi quit the party after May 09.
MQM-P was the second largest opposition party with 21 members followed by the GDA who had 14 members. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had three MPAs while Jamaat-e-Islami’s Syed Abdul Rasheed was also elected as a member of the Sindh Assembly on Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s platform.
Haleem Adil Sheikh had been appointed after being nominated jointly by the PTI, MQM-P and GDA. In the current scenario and numbers game, the MQM-P and the GDA were in a position to get their joint aspirant appointed.