MPAs cautiously welcome Murad’s re-election as CM, warn of serious governance challenges

Lawmakers of different political parties other than the PPP have cautiously welcomed the re-election of Murad Ali Shah as Sindh’s chief minister, saying he would face tough challenges related to governance in the province.

They were speaking in the Sindh Assembly that held a session on Thursday to choose the new leader of the house.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Firdous Shamim Naqvi said that a number of problems did exist in the province and the CM-elect should be given a free hand to deliver the goods. He said that the people of Karachi needed a water supply and their standards of living should also be improved.

Khurrum Sher Zaman, another lawmaker belonging to the PTI, said the PPP’s new government in the province should at least resolve the issue of water scarcity in its own stronghold areas of Larkana, Nawabshah, and Sehwan.

He said that recently an innocent girl had been killed in an incident of crossfire involving police in the Khayaban-e-Ittehad area of DHA in Karachi, observing that timely reforms in the institution of police could have prevented such unfortunate incidents.

Zaman said: “For the last five years, you kept on complaining that the province didn’t get the due share from the centre, but this time you will not be required to make such complaints. “But at the same time you have to fulfill the promises you have made with the people.”

Former leader of opposition Khawaja Izharul Hassan, who is an MPA of the MQM-Pakistan, expressed the hope that Murad Ali Shah during the upcoming stint would serve better as compared to his previous tenure.

“We don’t expect any personal benefit from the newly elected chief minister, but we will keep making demands from him in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan,” he said.

He said that the upcoming Sindh government should consider the opposition sitting in the house as its advisor as it represented some 30 million people of the province.

Shaharyar Khan Mahar, a lawmaker belonging to the Grand Democratic Alliance who contested the election for the leader of the house against Shah, said the opposition would continue to criticise the CM if he did not keep the promises he had made with the people of Sindh.

He said the upcoming government of the PPP should adhere to the norms of democracy and should not victimise the opposition by lodging false cases against its members.

Mahar said the new leadership of the house should take along with it the opposition in the best interest of province. He hoped that the opposition in the province would not be ignored this time.

Haleem Adil Sheikh, MPA of the PTI, said that the upcoming federal government of his party would extend all-out support to the Sindh government by providing all the due resources in the best interest of the people of the province.

He said that the opposition would support all the good acts of the provincial government. Muhammad Hussain Khan, an MQM MPA, said that during the previous regime of the PPP in the province, the Sindh Local Government Act had been amended several times, and these unwarranted acts had virtually paralysed the local government agencies in the province. He said Sindh had been lagging much behind in the education and health sectors while the water crisis had been worsening with each passing day in the province.

He warned that the people of Sindh would be deprived of their due resources owing to rampant corruption in the governance this time again. He expressed the hope that Shah would not ignore this time the cause of the development of urban parts of Sindh.