Justice (retired) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui has been appointed as new Sindh Governor.
President Mamnoon Hussain made the appointment on Wednesday on the advice of the prime minister. Justice (retired) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui had served as Chief Justice of Pakistan from July 1999 to January 2000. Justice Siddiqui had defied taking fresh oath under Provisional Constitutional Order after imposition of martial law in 1999.
As a consequence, he was forced to step down from his position, by the then military regime. Earlier, he had been Sindh High Court Chief Justice from November 5, 1990 to May 21, 1992.
Siddiqui confirmed the development while talking to the media, saying he was going to assume the office. He said that restoration of law and order in Karachi would be his first priority.
“I will try my best to address the issues of people,” he said. “I believe that maintaining peace in Karachi is the joint responsibility of both the provincial government and the governor. If peace is maintained in the city, businesses will flourish and people will take a sigh of relief,” he said while emphasising the need of peace in the province.
He said that after taking oath he would review the issues of funds and powers so as to put the matter of local government in order.
He said that Ibad was removed due to “recent controversies”. The decision to replace the governor was taken by the federal government. The governor’s office declined to comment on the matter.
Ibad became Sindh’s youngest governor on Dec 27, 2002 as a representative of then president Gen Pervez Musharraf. He has served as Sindh governor for nearly 14 years.
While he was very close to Altaf Hussain, he maintained a low profile in the MQM until 2002 when he became the acting convener of the MQM’s coordination committee after Altaf Hussain removed then convener Dr Imran Farooq from the post. He was considered as “man of crises” among MQM cadres.
