KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly is set to hold elections on Sunday for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker a day after the newly-elected members took oath amid tight security. 

The session, which was scheduled to start at 11am today, began after a delay with the recitation of the Holy Quran. Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani is chairing the session. 

The scrutiny of the papers for both slots has been completed and the voting will take place through a secret ballot. The arrangements in this regard have been completed. 

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominated Owais Qadir Shah and Anthony Naveed for the positions of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively. The nomination papers of both the candidates have been declared valid. 

As the session started, about nine members of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and Jamat-e-Islami’s (JI) Muhammad Farooq, who did not attend the oath-taking ceremony yesterday, took an oath. 

Speaker Durrani welcomed the newly elected members of the SIC.

Following this, PPP’s nominee for chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, said that 12 of their workers were killed during the election campaigns. 

“Our leader Aziz Junejo, who won the elections, passed away. The assembly should pray for them,” said Shah, adding that our country is suffering from terrorism.

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) nominated Sofia Saeed Shah for the speaker’s post and Rashid Khan for the deputy speaker. Their papers have also been declared valid. 

A day earlier, at least 148 newly-elected Sindh Assembly members took oath in the House of 168 as parties took to the streets to hold demonstrations against the alleged rigging in the February 8 polls. 

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PTI and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqiqi), had announced to hold a joint “peaceful” protest outside the assembly.

However, the situation turned tense before the swearing-in ceremony, as several workers, including women, clashed with the police party present there to keep the order.

Over 20 Qaumi Awami Tehreek workers, including women, were arrested and shifted to the police station during the clashes. The law enforcement officials also baton-charged the protestors.

The protests continued for hours and were called off after the police baton-charged and detained at least 30 protesters from near the Arts Council for staging a demonstration and raising slogans in the Red Zone area amid the imposition of Section-144.

On the other hand, the Punjab Assembly on Saturday elected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates Malik Ahmed Khan and Malik Zaheer Ahmed Channer as the House’s speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.