Who will take the mantle?
Loyalty to the PPP leadership has been the most outstanding quality of the outgoing Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah. This explains why the PPP thrice entrusted him with the management of Sindh; the party’s all time stronghold. While a reshuffle in the Sindh cabinet was expected, Qaim Ali f Shah’s replacement has led to surmises of all types. With aging the octogenarian Shah has on occasions stumbled or committed embarrassing slips of tongue. He was accused of being soft on Rangers with the result that he was taken for granted. He complained he had not been informed about the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain by the Rangers. It is also maintained that Bilawal Bhutto wanted a more active chief minister.
For many people in Sindh, bad governance combined with lack of responsiveness to the common man’s problems had become the hall mark of the PPP government under Qaim Ali Shah. The CM’s attitude towards the tragic deaths of children in Thar was at times cynical. He did little to stop the deterioration of educational system, through ghost schools in rural areas and organised mafia in cities which indulged in mass irregularities during the exams. For long, he displayed no concern about the water shortage in Karachi. He has been unable to mobilise the resources and manpower to remove garbage from the Karachi localities or to get covers for a lot of dangerous manholes.
The name of the new chief minister is supposed to be announced by Bilawal Bhutto within a couple of days. Sindh Finance Minster Murad Ali Shah, who is an engineer by training with a post graduate degree from Stanford, is supposed to be the favourite. Whosoever is chosen to head the government in Sindh will be required to cleanse the Aegean stables. The performance of the new CM will be judged from his ability to control widespread corruption, make police more effective, stop deterioration in educational system, improve Karachi’s dilapidated infrastructure, poor utility services and law and order.
Change of face will not change the challenges he will face in Sind in general and Karachi in particular. QA Shah depended too much on authority across the Arabian sea and was sandwiched between the rock and hard place. The PPP leadership is playing it's game. First they placed Mr Chandio as a controller in the garb of advisor and secondly betrayed the Provincial Government on the Rangers Issue, knowing well that it was the Rangers who controlled the situation which the PPP Sind Police failed and failed disgracefully. The next two months will be crucial. PPP or PPPP leadership in exile would still be in the driver's seat.
Comments are closed.