Ebad denies stepping down as Sindh governor

KARACHI: Rumours taking rounds all the day among the concerned quarters that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan is stepping down from the top constitutional office of the province were put to rest for the time being, at least by the governor’s appearance on Geo News on Thursday night.
Till evening, rumours were rife that Sindh governor was going to resign following revelations by the death row inmate in Mach Jail Saulat Ali Mirza in his video-recorded message. But later in the night, the governor appeared on a news show of Geo News TV categorically stating that he had no plans to step down nor he was being pressured by any of the relevant quarters to tender his resignation. He told the Geo News TV that neither the leadership of the Muttahida Quami Movement had been compelling him to stay in the office of the governor nor he was being asked by the MQM to quit. Dr Ebad has been serving as the Sindh governor since 27 December 2002. Prior to his appointment as the provincial governor during the regime of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, he belonged to the MQM, and during a previous coalition government in the province in the 1990s, he had served as the provincial housing and town planning minister.
Dr Ebad is the youngest-ever governor of the province at the time of his appointment and has served the province in the same coveted constitutional capacity for a record tenure of over 12 years and is still continuing.
The private television news media continuously aired unconfirmed reports that consultations had started by the relevant authorities at the seat of the federal government for possible replacement of Sindh governor. Names of certain politicians were also run by news channels as reportedly being considered by pertinent quarters as the new governor of Sindh.
The sources privy to the Governor House said that the Sindh governor continued with his official discharge of duties and engagements during the day in the normal and regular manner while he hadn’t done anything extraordinary during the day which could have indicated that he had been planning to step down soon. Neither the Governor House here received any indication that Dr Ebad would be asked by the presidency in Islamabad any time soon to step down.
While appearing on the Geo News TV show, Dr Ebad explained that he had done nothing in violation of the law of the land or the Constitution to help out any person lest any criminal. He said that a citizens’ complaint redressal cell had been working at the Sindh Governor’s House entertaining complaints and applications of the aggrieved general citizens to help them out for resolution of their issues within the ambit of the law and constitution.
Earlier in the day, Dr Ebad talked to former president Asif Ali Zardari, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, and Federal Interior Minister Chauhdry Nisar Ali Khan, and talked to him in detail about the evolving political situation in the backdrop of the allegations being leveled by the death row inmate, Saulat Mirza.
Sources privy to these conversations said that former president Zardari and Dr Ebad, among other matters of mutual interest, also talked about the ongoing process of talks between the MQM and PPP on Muttahida’s re-induction as a coalition partner in the Sindh government in the backdrop of Saulat Mirza’s allegations against the MQM and PPP’s provincial government.
Later in the night, Dr Ebad as part of his regular official engagements, met at Governor House the visiting student-officers from the Pakistan Army’s Command and Staff College in Quetta. During his speech to the participants of the army’s staff and command course, the governor, while observing his formal and regular ways of delivering speeches at such ceremonial occasions, shed light in detail on the importance of Karachi being the hub of economic and commercial activities in the country and also the government’s efforts to carry out development works here.