Arbab relieved of PA seat under long-ignored rule

KARACHI: On the completion of the fourth parliamentary year on Thursday, the Sindh Assembly declared the seat of lawmaker Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim vacant for remaining absent for 40 consecutive days of its sittings.

Jam Madad Ali of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional was earlier the only lawmaker in the parliamentary history of Sindh whose seat was declared vacant on the same ground by the then PPP government in 1995.

Dr Rahim, who is a former chief minister and has been thrice elected from his ancestral constituency in Tharparkar, was elected to the assembly in the 2008 elections from PS-60.

But after taking the oath, he never turned up to attend the session following a shoe attack on him in the assembly lobby.

During the past four years, all his leave applications used to be granted. The last one was granted on June 23, 2011.

Soon after the question hour on Thursday, Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani and others moved a motion under Rule 56 (1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Sindh Assembly, demanding that as the member had remained absent for 40 consecutive days, his seat be declared vacant.

PML-Q (Likeminded) lawmaker Abdur Razzaq Rahimoon tried to interrupt Mr Durrani before the motion could be read out. But Information Minister Shazia Marri addressing him said the motion was not a matter of debate. After a brief exchange of words, Mr Rahimoon along with his colleague Arbab Zulfiqar staged a walkout from the house.

While leaving the hall, he said: “The move [of unseating Dr Rahim] may have been according to the rules of the assembly but morally you are setting a bad example”.

Earlier, the chair brought to the notice of the assembly that he had received reports from the law branch, budget branch and assembly secretariat about continued absence of Dr Rahim for 40 days from the house and they were all working days as Saturday and Sundays were not counted since July 13, 2011.

Advocate General Abdul Fateh Malik, who was invited under Article 140 of the constitution to brief the house, highlighted the legal aspects of the long absence of Dr Rahim, the fate of the two petitions he had filed in the Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court and what the chief law officer described as contradictions in the leave applications.

Before the motion was put to the house, PML-F lawmakers left one after the other while the lawmakers belonging to the National People’s Party did not turn up to attend the session.

PML-Q legislator Shaharyar Mahar was seen entering and leaving the assembly hall, but it is not sure if he was present when the motion was put to the house.

After seeking the opinion of the house, the chair declared that the motion was carried ‘unanimously’ and the seat of Dr Rahim stood vacant.

This announcement was greeted by such slogans as “Jeay Bhutto”.

The chair asked the provincial assembly secretary to issue the notification and forward its copy to the chief election commissioner so that steps could be taken to fill the vacancy.

It is worth noting here that Jam Madad Ali, who had been unseated on the same ground in the 1990s, challenged the move in the Sindh High Court but lost the case.

Before reading out the order of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad to prorogue the session sine die at 1.40pm following completion of the business, Mr Khuhro said that the fourth parliamentary year was completed on Thursday with 105 days of session.

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