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No talks held yet with opposition on caretaker set-up: Murad

By Our Correspondent
May 24, 2018

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that no talks have been held yet with the opposition on choosing any of the nominees as caretaker chief minister of the province.

He stated this while was talking to newsmen at the Iftar-dinner reception he hosted for journalists and MPAs at the CM House on Wednesday. The opposition, especially the MQM-Pakistan, stayed away from the Iftar-dinner reception. Only the parliamentary party leader of the MQM in the Sindh Assembly, Syed Sardar Ahmed, reached the CM House but he left early.

The CM said that a number of names were being considered by his party (Pakistan Peoples Party) as for the slot of the caretaker chief minister of Sindh. He said it was the constitutional responsibility of the CM and the leader of opposition to appoint the caretaker chief minister in the province. He spoke about the constitutional procedure laid down for the appointment of the caretaker government setup in the province.

Shah said that in case no consensus was reached between the CM and the opposition leader in the provincial assembly, then the issue of the appointment of the caretaker chief minister would be sent to a six-member parliamentary committee, and if the committee also failed to reach a consensus decision, the matter would be referred to the Election Commission for the desirable appointment.

He said he had failed to understand the message given by the opposition in the Sindh Assembly by its decision to stay away from the Iftar-dinner reception at the CM House. He added that the Iftar-dinner reception he had hosted was meant for all the MPAs as well as journalists who covered the Sindh Assembly proceedings.

Shah said he had telephoned the opposition leader and all parliamentary party leaders in the Sindh Assembly to extend an invitation for this Iftar reception. “But even then they didn’t come as they could now better answer about their decision,” he said while referring to the opposition lawmakers he had invited.

“I still adhere to the viewpoint that people would reject whosoever talks about a separate province in Sindh,” said the CM while referring to his speech in the Sindh Assembly of Tuesday in which he had cursed those who advocated the cause of dividing Sindh.

“Whatever I said yesterday in the house was not directed at the MQM or the lawmakers sitting in the house as I gave my statement in response to the pamphlet of the 1962 shown by Leader of Opposition Khawaja Izharul Hassan,” he said while referring to the pamphlet shown by the opposition leader in the house dating back to the year 1962 published in support of the movement to create a new province in Sindh.

He said the general elections were just around the corner and everybody was free to present different slogans and manifestoes before the masses. “Now using this platform I reiterate that every politician and party possesses the right to talk about creating new provinces, dams, or presenting similar programmes, but rest assured the people of Sindh would not accept such things,” he said.

“After August 22 the MQM came back to the righteous path after much efforts but I’m helpless if the party once again decides to follow the footsteps of its founder,” he said. The CM said that he would stop being provincial chief executive on 28 May, 2018, after spending 22 months on the most coveted post of the province.

He added that he had been able to achieve to a large extent the promises he had made at the time of assuming the office of CM regarding development, peace, and progress in Thar. He was confident that the next CM of the province would also belong to the PPP.

Shah noted that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would announce the party’s manifesto and programme for contesting the next general elections. Meanwhile, it was learnt that the CM and the leader of opposition in the Sindh Assembly could not hold their first formal sitting on Wednesday on the caretaker setup in the province as the MQM-Pakistan boycotted the Iftar reception at the CM House.

The MQM boycotted the reception in protest against the remarks of the CM in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday, in which he cursed those who advocated the cause of a new province in Sindh.