All change at the top in Sindh

On the day that America delivered itself of a political shock another shock was happening in Pakistan with the replacement of the Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan. He is to be replaced by justice (Retired) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui as the 31^st governor of the province. It is reported that the decision to replace the existing governor was taken at a meeting between the President and the Prime Minister and will be ratified by President Mamnoon Hussain when he notifies the change on the advice of the PM.

Such are the bare facts, but it was becoming clearer as the days passed that Ishratul Ibad Khan’s 14 years in office were coming to an end. That he was unseated from the top is an indication that recent allegations of corruption, land grabbing and bribery made by the leader of the Pak Sarzameen Party leader Syed Mustafa Kamal, could not be brushed aside. There were also unsubstantiated but damaging allegations of Khan being in contact with and giving assistance to the founding and titular chief of the Muttahida Qaumi movement Altaf Hussain as well as its assumptive leader in Karachi Farooq Sattar. Favours appeared spread in many directions, credibility dropped like a stone and Mr Khan took the drop.

Were this to be an exercise in accountability then there may be a veneer of merit attached, but it is more likely a matter of political boilerplating. Despite there being an improvement in the security environment in Karachi there is much still to be done. Incoming governor Siddiqui has said that law and order will be his top priority, as was as a healing of the political divisions. Neither is susceptible to quick or easy change. The police remain in part corrupt and in political pockets; and the rifts politically are as wide and toxic as they ever were if a little less volatile than of yore. The new governor is reportedly ‘close’ to the ruling PML-N and his appointment is unlikely to do anything to cool political temperatures in a city where fever-management is increasingly fraught.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2016.

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