KP, Sindh governors resign

PESHAWAR/KARACHI: Shah Farman and Imran Ismail resigned as the governors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, respectively, after the National Assembly elected PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan on Monday.

Shah Farman, one of the founding members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had taken oath as the 32nd governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 5, 2018. He was elected Member Provincial Assembly from PK-10, Peshawar in the 2013 general elections and then from PK-71 in the 2018 general elections.

Shah Farman served as minister for information and minister for public health engineering in the cabinet of then chief minister, Pervez Khattak. A graduate of the Islamia College University and Khyber Law College, Shah Farman contested elections for the first time from the PTI platform and was elected as MPA in 2013, though he did not remain an active worker or elected public representative.

Knowing the fact that he might be replaced after the de-seating of Imran Khan as prime minister, Shah Farman had announced leaving the office once the new prime minister was elected.

He used his resignation as a political stunt to attract headlines in the media but did not tender the resignation until the election process of the new premier was completed or perhaps he was waiting for a decision on mass resignations of the party’s Members National Assembly (MNAs).

During his stay of three years and seven months at the Governor's House, Shah Farman not only failed to turn the premises into a university or library as promised by the PTI leadership but also avoided holding social, political, and cultural gatherings in the sprawling British-era building, unlike his predecessors who used to hold functions and meetings there. He even avoided receiving delegations from the city elite, business and industrial classes or politicians.

Although the Governor's House had lost its charm of being the centre for holdings tribal jirgas from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), other healthy activities which used to be arranged at the Governor's House also came to a standstill under Shah Farman.

The Governor's House gates were even closed for the media except for a few selected friends as Shah Farman had introduced the unique terminology of "mouth-to-mouth communication" for conveying information or messages to a targeted audience.

Shah Farman used to keep poultry at the Governor's House lawns and do kitchen gardening as a hobby. The Governor's House was limited to holding oath-taking ceremonies of newly inducted ministers, judges, etc or signing bills and acts or summoning and adjourning the assembly sessions.

Political and social figures hope that with the replacement of Shah Farman, the Governor's House would once again become a hub for social, cultural, educational and political gatherings and other healthy activities, instead of spending huge discretionary funds on limited personal activities or gifts.

Shah Farman’s counterpart in Sindh, Imran Ismail assumed the office of governor on 27th August, 2018. Imran Ismail attended a protest organised by the PTI at the Millennium Mall of Karachi on Sunday night against the dismissal of former prime minister Imran Khan where he also announced his plan to quit the office of Sindh governor as soon as Shehbaz Sharif takes charge as the country’s next chief executive.

In his resignation letter, dated April 11, sent to President Arif Alvi, Imran Ismail says: “In view of the abject failure of all the state institutions to take due notice of the facts and documentary evidence of the letter gate scandal and the foreign-sponsored conspiracy to remove Mr. Imran Khan, my leader and the duly elected Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan from his office and installing instead, a person facing serious charges of corruption in a manner that history shall reveal in full measure in due course, I write to inform you that my conscience does not permit to accord state protocol to such a person in my capacity as the Governor of the Great province of Sindh, which was the first to adopt the Pakistan Resolution”.

Ismail further writes: “While I shall continue to strive for achieving true sovereignty of our motherland under the command of my able leader, Imran Khan, I believe that holding this office any further shall be a violation of my self-respect and of the sacred trust reposed in me by my leader”.

Imran Ismail in his resignation letter also quotes the famous couplet of Allama Iqbal: “Ae tair-e-lahoti us rizq se mout achi – Jis rizq se aati ho parwaz me kotahi” “Consequently, I hereby tender my resignation with immediate effect and with the absolute conviction that no one shall be able to stop Pakistan from reaching its full potential to represent the true essence of a progressive Islamic state and claim its rightful place in the comity of civilized nations. Imran Khan Zindabad, Pakistan Payindabad,” he concludes.