Appointment of SPSC chairman: governor's power clipped by Sindh Assembly

The Sindh Assembly, through passing a treasury backed bill into law on Wednesday, conferred the power of appointing the chairman and members of Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) upon the Government instead of the Governor.
The Sindh Assembly session, which was held here at Sindh Assembly Secretariat Building with Nisar Ahmed Khuhro as its speaker, expectedly witnessed a light wave of gentle argument between the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led treasury and opposition led by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
With Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader and former Sindh chief minister, Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim absent and MQM-led opposition back in the house, the session's proceedings were kicked off by the speaker with 65-minutes delay at 5:05pm.
In a highly congenial environment, members of provincial assembly (MPAs) from MQM including Shoaib Bukhari, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Adil Siddiqui, Faisal Sabzwari and Bilqees Mukhtar congratulating the PPP officials in the house assured their full support to any positive step. While Sardar Ahmed expected the speaker to run the house justly. Sabzwari assured the PPP-led treasury of ending a tradition based on the notion of "opposition for the sake of opposition".
Leader of the House Syed, Qaim Ali Shah, Pir Mazharul Haq and Ayaz Soomro from PPP appreciated the MQM leaders for their good intentions and positive approach. Mir Nadir Magsi went a step ahead and offered the MQM MPAs to sit on the treasury benches by joining hands with the PPP.
The Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khoro also thanked the house for electing him unopposed and termed existence of the opposition mandatory for maintaining beauty of an assembly.
A brief disturbance was, however, witnessed in the media gallery when the journalists protesting occupation of their seats by the visitors, mostly PPP supporters, called for boycotting the session. But the call was not materialised as Sindh Information Minister, Shazia Marri requested the speaker to help the media get their allocated seats.
While two leaders, Mir Hasan Khoso from PML-Q and Heer Sohoo from PML-F, were sworn in as MPAs, complaints of "political retaliation" from PML-F's Jam Madad, PML-Q's Razak Rahimo and MQM's Nisar Kanwar in their respective areas also hit the house.
Qaim came with firm assurance to the complainants that their concerns would be allayed by making probe into what the opposition members said baseless FIRs lodged against their party colleagues or relatives. The first argument in the newly elected Sindh Assembly between the treasury and opposition was witnessed when a move "to further amend the Sindh Public Service Commission Act, 1989" was tabled by Provincial Law Minister Ayaz Soomro.
According to the bill the amended Act would be called as the Sindh Public Service Commission (Amendment) Act, 2008 and come into force at once. In the SPSC Act, 1989, hereinafter the said Act, clause (bb) of Section 2 would be omitted while for the word "Governor" the word "Government" would be substituted through out the Act, it said.
Further, the bill said in SPSC Act, 1989 for sub-section (2) of section 4 the following shall be substituted: "(2) The Chairman or a Member shall hold office for a single non-renewable term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office; provided that the Government may in its discretion reconstitute the Commission and reappoint the Chairman and the Members within a period of thirty days from the date on which this sub-section comes into force."
Reasoning the proposed amendments the bill said "on dissolution of Provincial Assembly, there was Governor Rule in the province of Sindh, therefore, by Sindh Ordinance No XXXIX of 2001, the Sindh Public Service Commission Act, l989, was extensively amended and the powers of the Government were transferred to Governor."
It said: "Since the democracy has been restored and the Provincial Assembly has become functional, it is expedient to restore the powers of the Government." MQM's Sardar Ahmed, however, without saying "No" to the proposal argued that the amendment would create problems and ultimately affect independent performance of the chairmen and members of SPSC.
Declaring that the measure was also contrary to Rule-6 of the SPSC Act, Sardar sought stay from the house for further deliberations on the bill. Proposing some other solution to the problem, the MQM leader said the new SPSC chairman was appointed by the then chief minister (Arbab) and not the governor.
The PPP parliamentary leader in the house, Pir Mazhar backed by Rafique Engineer, Munawwar Abbasi, Murad Ali Shah countering the opposition view said the caretaker government was meant to hold elections in the country instead of making appointments, postings and transfers.
Mazhar claimed that the caretaker set up was "ill-intentioned" and had used power of the people, an elected government, by making new appointments. A majority of the house, however, said "I" in favour of the bill firstly with a complete quorum and partitioned treasury and opposition.
The following five ordinances were also laid before the assembly under Article 128(2)(a) of the Constitution. Sindh Ordinance No II of 2008: The Pakistan Institute of Management Ordinance, 2008. Sindh Ordinance No III of 2008: The Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008. Sindh Ordinance No IV of 2008: The Sindh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008. Sindh Ordinance No V of 2008.
The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008. Sindh Ordinance No VI of 2008: The Sindh Government Servants Benevolent Fund (Amendment), Ordinance, 2008. The Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad prorogued the session after conclusion of its business.