KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party’s Syed Murad Ali Shah was elected as chief minister of Sindh — 35th overall and 28th elected — on Thursday when he comfortably prevailed over his rival Shaharyar Mahar fielded by combined opposition parties in the election held at the Sindh Assembly with Speaker Siraj Durrani in the chair.

Mr Shah secured 97 votes against Mr Mahar’s 61 votes as was announced by the chair.

He is the fifth elected chief minister, who has won the slot two or more times in Sindh’s 81-year-old parliamentary history.

Says law and order his top priority

Ayub Khuhro and Syed Qaim Ali Shah assumed the top post thrice while Allah Bux Soomro and Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah won it twice during the British Raj.

The key business of the session was to elect new leader of the house (chief minister). The speaker announced names of two candidates, Murad Ali Shah of the PPP and Shaharyar Mahar of the Grand Democratic Alliance.

The chair, as mentioned in the assembly’s Rules of Procedure, conducted the polling by division of the house.

The MPAs who voted for Mr Shah were asked to leave the house from Gate-1 on the right of the aisle; while the members who supported Mr Mahar left the house through Gate-2 in the opposite direction.

Each member was called and issued with the ballot by the assembly’s secretarial authorities.

Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s two members opted to abstain while its third member along with the only member of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal did not turn up during voting in the house.

Later, the chair opened the gates for the members to come inside and announced the result.

Mr Shah secured 97 votes out of 158 votes polled. Mr Mahar could secure 61 votes.

Imran Ismail, who is named by his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, as the future governor of Sindh, was absent.

Later, the chair invited Mr Shah to occupy Seat No.1 reserved for the leader of the house.

During his inaugural speech, Mr Shah spelled out his government’s priorities with law and order on the top.

He showed a copy of the PPP’s manifesto and said he was set to implement what was promised in it by his party. “We have returned to the assemblies in general elections because of this manifesto. I am bound to implement this manifesto,” he said.

Law and order top priority

He said his top priority would be law and order, adding that his previous 22-month government followed his predecessor, Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s policies in restoring peace to Karachi and the rest of Sindh.

“Now, we have to sustain it and make the province the most peaceful region in the country because our prosperity and development [depend] on it.”

Recalling law and order in the past, Mr Shah said people used to travel in convoys on highways because of robberies while the situation in Karachi was even worse.

“It was commitment of the PPP government in 2013 which launched targeted operations and demonstrated zero tolerance against outlaws and mafias and restored peace to the city.”

He, however, conceded that street crime had increased in the city in the last two months and his government would eliminate it effectively.

Regarding police reforms, he said he was committed to introducing police reforms and making the department efficient, community-friendly and an effective force.

‘Dams no solution to water crisis’

Water was his second priority for irrigation, drinking purpose and industrial use, he said.

He added that some people believed solution of overcoming existing water shortages lay in construction of dams.

“This is totally wrong; the dams are actually the names of cemented walls but their raw material is water — we don’t have water in the system and the structure of dams would not resolve this issue,” he said, adding that actual solution of water shortage lay in conservation and adaptation of modern irrigational methods.

Mr Shah said he had conceived a project to install desalination plant at the sea to produce drinking water. This project would be launched under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

About industrial water requirements in Karachi and elsewhere in the province, the chief minister said recycled water would be provided to them.

“We would launch such projects on PPP mode again.”

He said hardly any water in the city was treated but “we have started a water treatment project and it would be completed shortly”.

He said the provincial government had installed thousands of water supply schemes in villages and towns but they had failed because of prolonged power outages and loadshedding.

“We had started solarising water supply schemes previously and this project would be given top priority in our new government,” he said.

Mr Shah said health facilities had been established across Sindh during previous PPP governments.

He said cardiovascular facilities had been provided in various districts through satellite system evolved through the NICVD at Karachi.

“Now, such facilities are available across Sindh within the reach of one-hour drive,” he said, adding that “we would further improve on this”.

About education, he conceded that education emergency, which was declared by him in the past could not achieve desired results.

He added the main issue in education was teachers. “We would give special focus on launching modern teaching methods, teachers’ training programmes and scientifically improve syllabi as per international standards.”

Mr Shah said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had asked him to launch a special poverty alleviation programme.

“We have a plan to fight against poverty by launching income-generating programmes particularly in the rural areas,” he said, warning the federal government that it should not discontinue the Benazir Income Support Programme.

He spoke about his party’s plans for women development, urban transport and other issues.

He said the urban transport projects that he had launched previously were near completion.

“I am sorry to say the federally-funded Green Line project is still incomplete while they [Islamabad] were advising me months ago [during his last tenure] to procure busses to ply on different routes, which, had they been procured would have negatively affected the public exchequer.”

He referred to some PTI members claiming that they would solve all the problems between the Centre and the provincial government.

“Thank you so much for your offer. I would request you to ask the federal government to constitute the National Finance Commission in the first phase and [announce] NFC [Award],” he said, urging the PTI members to ask Islamabad to give Sindh its due share of water.

He thanked his party leadership for reposing confidence in him and promised that he would serve the people of Sindh.

Earlier, many members from both sides of the aisle felicitated the new chief minister by making speeches.

They included Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Khurram Sher Zaman, Kunwar Naveed Jameel, Awais Shah, Heer Soho, Ismail Rahu, Nasir Shah, Firdous Naqvi, Malik Asad Sikander, Mohammad Hussain, Arif Mustafa, Haleem Adil, Mangla Sharma, Murtaza Baloch, Rana Ansar, Shaharyar Mahar and others.

Speaker Durrani congratulated Mr Shah.

The house was prorogued sine die.

Mr Shah would take oath on Saturday after arrival of the party leaders who are in Islamabad attending the NA session.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2018