Sindh Food Minister Nadir Magsi
is the frontrunner in a group of three for the vacant slot of the Sindh home minister, with senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders Agha Siraj
Durrani and Pir Mazharul Haq also vying for the lucrative post, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Magsi, elected from PS-40 Kamber Shahdadkot II, is being considered the likely replacement for ZulfiKar Mirza for his temperament and ability to handle affairs.
His appointment, though, is dependant on whether President Asif Ali Zardari decides to appease the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or wants to keep the party in check, sources said.
In the recent past, rumours were rife that Magsi could join any breakaway faction of the PPP to be created by former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. But the latest development is not only likely to put such speculation to bed, but also hand greater responsibility in the Zardari-led PPP.
The other two, Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani and Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, are not as volatile as Mirza, but more measured in their approaches. “After the Awami National Party (ANP) threatened to quit the provincial coalition government, local PPP leaders, Taj Haider and Najmi Alam among them, tried to pacify and cajole the ANP,” the sources said.
“But Durrani met ANP leaders to convince them that their demands would be addressed and that progress would be made soon. As things stand, Durrani is acting as if he was the stand-by home minister,” the sources added.
However, the sources said Durrani’s chances of becoming the home minister less than Magsi’s.
Haq wants a more significant
portfolio in the Sindh government, sources asserted, but until now, he
has been dealing with the MQM
and their parliamentary party in the Sindh Assembly.
The sources said Haq was an outside bet for the home minister’s slot, with his amicable interaction with the MQM seen as a counterweight to the blasé Mirza, or for that matter, Magsi.
