Fazal-ur-Rehman assumes office of caretaker Sindh CM

KARACHI: Fazal-ur-Rehman, a former Sindh chief secretary, on Saturday assumed the office of caretaker chief minister of Sindh province following oath of the office at the ceremony at Sindh Governor House. Governor Mohammad Zubair administered him the oath in presence of the outgoing chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Briefly talking to newsmen on the occasion, Fazal-ur-Rehman said he would do his best to render support for holding of general elections in a just, transparent, and independent manner in the province. Fazal said he didn’t foresee any chance of delaying or postponement of forthcoming general elections in the country. He expressed the hope that general elections in the country would be held on time as it is the consensus opinion of all the other quarters in the country. He expressed gratitude to both the ruling and the opposition political parties for reposing confidence in him to become caretaker chief minister of the province. He said names of his cabinet members would be unveiled in a day or two.

Later, the caretaker Sindh chief minister reached the Chief Minister House to formally assume the office of the provincial chief executive for the interim period of around two months. The officials of chief minister’s secretariat greeted him and a contingent of Sindh Police presented him the guard of honour.

Those who attended the ceremony included Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Khan Durrani, Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, Director-General of Sindh Rangers Maj Gen Mohammad Saeed, Inspector General of Sindh Police AD Khowaja, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar, Senator Saleem Zia, Provincial Ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik, members of recently dissolved Sindh cabinet Nisar Khuhro, Saeed Ghani, Nasir Hussain, Shamim Mumtaz, provincial government secretaries, and other dignitaries.

In a related development, the principal secretary to Sindh chief minister was changed a day before the new caretaker Sindh chief minister took office. Ejaz Ahmed Khan, the commissioner Karachi and a grade-21 govt official, has been posted as the new principal secretary to the chief minister. He replaced Muhammad Sohail Rajput who is another grade-21 govt official. The appointment of caretaker CM of the province came as the result of successful negotiations between outgoing chief minister Murad Ali Shah and Opposition Leader in outgoing Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan who reached a consensus decision on Thursday last.

Later, the caretaker Sindh CM called on the Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair at the Governor House. The Sindh governor greeted Fazal-ur-Rehman for assuming the position of caretaker Sindh CM. Zubair expressed the hope that new CM would perform his duties in best manner and would come up to the expectations of the people The meeting took into consideration steps being taken to hold general elections on July 25 in a fair, free, and just manner and provision of a level playing field to all contesting political parties enabling them to fully take part in the polls. The two also discussed steps to ensure the maintenance of law and order on the polling day and other issues of governance.

Talking to media, Governor, Mohammad Zubair, said the upcoming general elections would prove to be the milestone of the political history. “This is because the elections are being held at a juncture when during last five years several concrete steps were taken for restoration of law and order and for economic prosperity and development of the country,” said the governor. Zubair said the forthcoming elections would determine the direction of the country towards achieving further economic prosperity and development. He said all the political parties deserve praise as after the centre, in the Sindh too a consensus decision had been reached for installing the caretaker government set-up. He said it is a good sign that ruling and Opposition political parties have reached a consensus to appoint a caretaker chief minister as it reflects the strength of democratic norms.