LARKANA: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said lawmakers of Pakistan Peoples Party have submitted their resignations to the party chairman and now it is for the leadership to decide when and how to use them at opportune time.

He told journalists in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on Saturday that central executive committee of the party was scheduled to meet on Dec 29 in Karachi and the issue of resignations was likely to be discussed at this forum.

He reiterated that it was for the leadership to decide what it would do with the resignations and it would not act on them on somebody’s urging. The party would announce the decision on resignations from the platform of Pakistan Democratic Movement, he added.

He said that the party would not leave the field open in Senate polls and by-election but an apolitical person might interpret the move as an attempt to save the government in Sindh. Those who could not have won even a councillor’s seat had sneaked through backdoors and become federal ministers, he said.

He said in answer to a question that he had no information about who was going to participate in the death anniversary programme and added in the same breath that he was not aware of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s engagements. “I am here only to review security arrangements for the death anniversary event,” he said.

He said that all out efforts would be made to observe SOPs for Covid-19 during the anniversary programme and it would be ensured that masks were provided to participants. “We want to contain the virus and I am here to serve people not to play cricket,” he said.

The chief minister presided over a high-profile meeting during his visit in which Larkana Deputy Commissioner Tariq Manzoor briefed him about the arrangements made for the event.

He predicted massive participation of people in the event from all over the country to pay homage to their leader. PPP had a track record of serving the poor who loved it for that, he said, directing officers to make effective traffic arrangements on the day.

Earlier, the chief minister accompanied by provincial ministers Mukesh Chawla, Nawab Taimoor Talpur, MPAs Sharjeel Inam Memon, Imdad Pitafi and others laid wreaths and offered fateha on Bhuttos’ graves in the mausoleum.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2020