The Building
The two-storey building of the Sindh Assembly consists of the camp office of the Chief Minister, offices of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, ministers, Leader of the Opposition, Secretariat, Law Department of the Government of Sindh, and Library.
The foundation stone of the building was laid by Sir Lancelot Graham, the Governor of Sindh, on 11 March 1940. The construction of the building – declared open by Sir Hugh Dow, the Governor of Sindh, on 4 March 1942 – was completed within a span of two years.
In 1971, after a lapse of about 24 years, it was again declared as the Sindh Assembly building. Since then it has been used as such. Presently, the central portion of the building, the Assembly Hall, seats a capacity of 168 Legislators.
Previous Assemblies
In 1890 Sindh got representation for the first time in the Bombay Legislative Assembly. Four members represented Sindh at that time. After some struggle, and with the support of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Sindh gained independence from the Bombay Presidency. H.H. Sir Agha Khan, G.M. Syed, Sir Abdul Qayyum Khan and other Indian Muslim leaders played an important role in ensuring separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency, which finally took place on 1 April 1936.
The newly created province, Sindh, secured a Legislative Assembly of its own, elected on the basis of communal and minorities’ representation. Sir Lancelot Graham was appointed as the first Governor of Sindh by the British Government on 1 April 1936. He was also the Head of the Council, which comprised 25 Members, including two advisors from the Bombay Council to administer the affairs of Sindh until 1937.
The first election of the Sindh Legislative Assembly was held on 7 February 1937, while Sir Lancelot Graham was the Governor of Sindh. He held elections for 60 members of the Sindh Legislative Assembly. The distribution of seats was: 18 general seats, 33 Muhammadan seats, two seats for Europeans, two seats reserved for representatives of Commerce, Industry, Mining & Planting, two for landlords, one for representatives of Labour, one for the women’s constituency (general) and one for the women’s constituency (Muhammadan).
On 15 April 1937 the Governor summoned the first session of the first Sindh Legislative Assembly to meet on 27 April 1937 in the Assembly Hall of the Sindh Chief Court Karachi (the present Sindh High Court Building). The session, which continued for four days only, appointed Dewan Bahadur Hiranand Khemchand as Chairman to preside over the first session. Dewan Bahadur Bhoj Singh was elected as the Speaker and Khan Bahadur Allah Bux Gabol as Deputy Speaker.
The session of the Sindh Legislative Assembly of the newly created Islamic State "Pakistan" commenced on 4 February and ended on 18 February 1948. In the session 38 Members took the oath of allegiance to the new state of Pakistan.