Murad poised to become new Sindh CM after today's session

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party's nominated Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah is all geared up to take over from Qaim Ali Shah as the province's 27th chief executive on Friday.

The chief minister will be sworn in today after voting takes place via the division method. Members of the Sindh assembly will elect the new chief minister today. The Pakistan Peoples Party will comfortably elect its nominated candidate Murad Ali Shah since it has the most number of seats in the Sindh assembly. The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians leads with 91 seats, MQM has 51 seats followed by the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) with 11 seats.

PML-N has 7 seats in the provincial assembly while PTI has 3. National Peoples Party has 1 candidate while an independent candidate will also be part of the process. MQM has decided to refrain from taking part in the voting process altogether and will also not field its candidate. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf will field Khurram Sher Zaman as their candidate for the post of chief minister. 

The post of the chief minister fell vacant after former CM Sindh Qaim Ali Shah tendered his resignation to Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan on Wednesday. The decision to replace Qaim Ali Shah with Murad Ali Shah as the new chief minister of Sindh was taken at a meeting in Dubai which was organised by the party's senior leadership.

Four members of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians could not make it into the Sindh assembly to take part in the voting process.

On Tuesday, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari declared Murad Ali Shah as the party's nominated chief minister for Sindh. Today's session will be presided by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.