Raging debate: is the octogenarian CM good enough?

Karachi
Following the attack on members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowrangi in Karachi, a debate that has been raging is that whether or not the resignation of Sindh’s octogenarian chief minister would bring a positive change in the law and orders situation in the city as well as in the other parts of the province.
The killing of 45 people in the brutal attack has raised many eyebrows and the opposition parties on the floor of the Sindh Assembly have demanded the resignation of Qaim Ali Shah and moved a resolution to discuss the incident.
In this connection, The News talked to leaders of political parties. There were mixed views as some were of the opinion that there was a need for a younger and dynamic leadership while others believed that merely a change of face would not help resolve the issues but pragmatically speaking, all stakeholders should be on one page for restoring peace in Sindh before the situations spirals out of control.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, who is also the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly, believes that the chief minister has completely failed to deliver in terms of development work, the law and order situation, governance etc and he should be replaced with a younger and energetic one who can work round the clock.
“The chief minister’s lack of seriousness can be gauged from the fact that he was absent during the assembly proceedings on Friday wherein the issue of the Safoora Chowrangi massacre was discussed,” he noted.
“The MQM believes that if he is incapable of performing up to mark, he should quit and allow a younger person to run the affairs of the government.”
Bashir Jan, senior leader of the Awami National Party who had also served as the general secretary of the party for a long time, hinted at the possibility that all the recent acts of violence, including the killing of Ismailis, a University of Karachi professor and T2F’s Sabeen Mahmud, were actually aimed at ousting the chief minister.
“For a long time we have seen the law and order situation in Sindh worsening and the attack in Safoora isn’t the only one that requires a change of leadership,” he observed.
“But a change of individuals won’t make any difference as we have to evolve a concrete policy and mechanism to bring the law and order situation under control.”
He said the government and the civil society should unite to combat the menace of terrorism similar to how it was done in Sri Lanka.
“Unfortunately, there is common perception that political parties have militant wings but to me, militant wings control political parties and we have to change our attitude to tackle this. The time is not far away that we will be declared a terrorist state if we don’t act now,” he warned.
“We have to make a collective decision as to whether we want to be labelled a fundamentalist or a liberal state. Nurseries of terrorists will have to be eliminated if we want permanent peace in the province and the country.”
Jan also pointed out that despite the Model Town incident in Lahore and the attack on an army school in Peshawar, there were no demands for the resignation of the chief ministers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The MNAs and MPAs in these provinces don’t speak against the terrorists as they came into power with their help,” he added.
Khurram Sher Zaman, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA, endorsed the demand of the joint opposition and said for the last eight years, Qaim Ali Shah, who had kept the portfolio of the home department with himself, had been performing very poorly and the situation was growing worse.
“It is a sorry state of affairs that Sindh has no home minister and as there is no accountability in any of the department,” he added.
“It is the time that a new chief minister who has passion and is energetic be appointed. The new chief minister should have the will and courage to bring a positive change. Only removing SHOs or SPs won’t bear any fruit and accountability should start from the top.”
Haleem Adil Sheikh, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, said Sindh was in a state of war and needed a chief minister who was empowered to make his own decisions.
“The province needs a powerful chief minister, not one who is dictated by his party’s leadership. If the government is sincere in addressing the law and order problems, it should appoint a young, energetic and powerful chief minister,” he observed.
“But sacrificing the chief minister just to save the existing flawed system would be wrong.”