New Sindh cabinet gets mostly fresh faces

Members of the fresh Sindh cabinet, which comprises mostly new faces, took the oath of office at the Governor House on Sunday. Only three members of this cabinet were part of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s advisory group in his previous term.

Acting governor Agha Siraj Khan Durrani administered the oath to the newly inducted members of the cabinet in the presence of a number of dignitaries, parliamentarians, politicians and senior officials. CM Shah also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

The new provincial cabinet appointed by Shah comprises eight ministers and two advisers. The appointment of the new cabinet members was finalised after the approval of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

After the oath-taking ceremony, Chief Secretary Maj (retd) Azam Suleman Khan issued separate notifications of the induction of the new cabinet members along with the portfolios allocated to them.

Cabinet members

Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho has been assigned the portfolios of health and population welfare. Hari Ram will look after the departments of minority affairs, social welfare and prisons. Muhammad Ismail Rahu has been assigned the portfolio of agriculture, supply & prices. Mir Shabbir Ali Bijrani will look after the mines & minerals department.

Makhdoom Mehboob Zaman has been assigned the portfolio of revenue & relief. Saeed Ghani will look after the departments of local government, public health engineering, rural development and Katchi Abadis.

Syed Sardar Ali Shah has been assigned the portfolios of education and culture, tourism & antiquities. Syeda Shehla Raza will look after the women development department. Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar and Barrister Murtaza Wahab have been appointed advisers to the CM.

Of these cabinet members, Saeed Ghani served in the previous cabinet of CM Shah as the planning & development minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah as the culture minister and Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar as the sports minister.

Murtaza Wahab served as the law adviser in the previous set-up for a brief period, but he, the other advisers and the special assistants to the CM had to resign in view of an adverse ruling of the court based on the fact that these former aides to Shah were not members of the Sindh Assembly at that time.

Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho is the sister of PPP leader and former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari. Her husband was the health secretary until recently. He was later transferred as the livestock secretary when the caretaker Sindh government took over.

Mir Shabbir Ali Bijarani is the son of the deceased provincial minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. The cabinet members and the CM later visited Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum to offer Fateha and lay floral wreaths.

Shah himself was sworn in as Sindh’s 29th chief minister at the Governor House a day earlier. Acting governor Agha Siraj Khan Durrani administered him the oath of office in Urdu. The ceremony was held in the sprawling lawn of the Governor House as a large gathering comprising several eminent personalities witnessed the swearing-in of the new CM.

Shah is the 29th chief executive of the province since the creation of Pakistan, and the 33rd since Sindh was given the status of a separate province during the British colonial rule. Shah has become the CM for the second consecutive term after his previous tenure from July 29, 2016 to May 28, 2018.

After the ceremony, the chief secretary issued this notification: “Murad Ali Shah has assumed the office of the chief minister after taking the oath before the governor, as envisaged by Article 130(5) of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, at 6pm on August 18, 2018.”