KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah met PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai on Tuesday.

He was accompanied by Senior Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and IT Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla.

There was no official word about the meeting till late night, but according to party sources, Mr Zardari was briefed on the recent large-scale reshuffle in the administrative machinery of the province.

Also read: Qaim takes credit for restoration of peace to Karachi

The chief minister could not attend an earlier PPP meeting in Dubai where Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had taken the party leadership into confidence on his meeting with the Corps Commander, Karachi, and the director general of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh.

It may be mentioned that Mr Shah could not attend a meeting of the apex committee held on July 12 because he was in Saudi Arabia to perform Umra.

On his return, the chief minister announced the bureaucratic reshuffle without informing the party and PPP legislators took up the issue with the high command.

Those affected by the reshuffle included Director General of the Sindh Building Control Authority Manzoor Qadir, Karachi Municipal Corporation chief Saqib Soomro, Chairman of the Fisheries Cooperative Society Nisar Morai, Additional IG Police Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo and deputy commissioners of Sanghar, Dadu, Sujawal, Mithi, Jamshoro, Mirpurkhas, Shikarpur, Tando Allahyar and Naushero Feroze districts.

The districts are represented in the Sindh Assembly among others by PPP stalwarts like Imdad Ali Pitafi, Dr Sikander Shoro, Fayyaz Ali Butt, Syed Sardar Ali Shah and Shahid Abdul Salam Thaiem.

The legislators were of the view that the bureaucratic shake-up would harm the party’s interest because local government elections are due in September. Some of them believed that the steps had been taken under pressure of the apex committee.

The party sources said that the purpose of the Dubai meeting was to formulate the strategy for local government elections, make changes in the cabinet by replacing ‘non-performing ministers’ with new faces and review arrangements to meet the flood situation as the River Indus had started inundating Katcha areas in Sindh and could take a serious turn because of monsoon rains.

But the presence of ministers for finance and information at the meeting, who had attended the apex committee meeting, gives credibility to the version that the party chief wanted to be fully informed about the apex committee’s decisions.

If the decision to transfer the top bureaucrats and deputy commissioners of important districts was taken under pressure of the apex committee that would mean surrendering the powers of the elected government to the committee which ought to be resisted.

The PPP co-chairman has said publicly that the governance was none of the business of law-enforcement agencies because they had been called out only to restore peace and deal with terrorists, target-killers and extortionists and control the law and order situation.

The bureaucratic reshuffle was taken as a prelude to the second phase of the operation against officials involved in corruption or patronising criminals.

The apex committee is believed to have decided to step up the operation after Eid.

Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2015

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