KARACHI: Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday took oath as 33rd chief minister of Sindh in a ceremony held at the spacious lush green lawns of Governor House.

He was administered oath by acting Sindh Governor Agha Siraj Durrani.

After taking oath, Mr Shah came straight to the Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who was seated in the front row, to express his gratitude for reposing his confidence in him.

Summons law and order meeting for Sunday morning

According to sources, the new Sindh cabinet, whose approval was given by Mr Bhutto-Zardari in the evening, will take oath on Sunday evening at the Governor House.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by a number of diplomats, parliamentarians, Karachi corps commander, Rangers director general, administrative secretaries, Karachi commissioner other high officials.

After the ceremony, the CM left for Bilawal House where, according to insiders, he had a meeting with Mr Bhutto-Zardari.

In the meeting, the insiders said, they finalised names of his next cabinet.

Mr Shah has become the Sindh CM for a second consecutive term. He was elected as the leader of the house on Thursday. He got 97 votes against Shaharyar Khan Mahar, the candidate of the joint opposition parties, who got 61 votes.

Arrangements for over a thousand guests were made at the lawns of Governor House, but all seats were occupied before the start of the ceremony. Hundreds of guests continued pouring in and they had to stand to witness the ceremony.

At 5.50pm the PPP chairman along with other party leaders, including Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman, entered the venue amid loud slogans of Jeay Bhutto.

Soon after Governor Durrani along with Mr Shah and caretaker Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rahman and other high officials came out from the Governor House and took their seats at the stage.

The ceremony began as soon as they took their seats. The national anthem was played followed by recitation from Quran.

Sindh Chief Secretary retired Major Azam Suleman requested the governor to administer oath to Mr Shah.

After the ceremony was over, most of the guests instead of going for tea, converged around Mr Bhutto-Zardari and started raising slogans in his favour. They encircled him until the security staff came to make way for him to leave the venue.

Law and order meeting

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has summoned a meeting on law and order situation in the province on Sunday morning at 9am where the police chief would give him briefing on the law and order situation.

The law and order meeting would be followed by a meeting on irrigation and drinking water scarcity and loadshedding problem. This meeting will be attended by secretaries concerned who would brief the chief minister on the situation obtaining in the province.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018