Mirza’s son replaces father in Sindh Assembly
* Distances himself from father’s anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement stance
By Razzak Abro
KARACHI: Former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s son, Hasnain Mirza replaced his father in the Sindh Assembly (SA) on Thursday but distanced himself from his father’s anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) stance.
He told journalists, who eagerly waited for his arrival at the provincial assembly building, that his father’s stance about the MQM was of a person who had remained home minister. He was an MPA and would focus on issues of the people of his constituency, he added.
By profession a lawyer, Barrister Hasnain formally took his oath as the member of the provincial assembly (MPA) after being elected in by-elections on PS-57, Badin, the seat vacated by his father. Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro administered the oath to him. The oath was administered in English language at desire of younger Mirza.
He arrived at the SA building along with his mother, National Assembly’s Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza, his wife and in-laws. The in-laws include his father-in-law Shahid Aziz Siddiqi, who is a senior bureaucrat of the country, former commissioner of Karachi, and currently serving as chairman of the state-run insurance organisation, State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan.
PPP lawmakers warmly welcomed his addition in provincial legislative house. All of them thumped desks and chanted slogans of ‘Jeay Bhutto’, ‘Zinda he BB (Benazir Bhutto) zinda he”, soon after his oath taking. Many of the party members also met him by shaking hands separately after he formally took his seat.
Though he was reserved in talking to the media, some of close friends of his father, including Sharjeel Inam Memon and Imran Laghari kept continuing their attempts to get his media talk minimised the whole time during his stay there.
Earlier, while speaking in the house after taking oath, he thanked the PPP leaders, President Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for awarding him the party ticket during the by-elections.
He also thanked people of his constituency for casting him votes.
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