A new Sindh governor

A political era may have been truly said to come to an end, some might say prematurely, with the swearing in of former Chief Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman as the 31^st governor of Sindh. He replaces Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan who was peremptorily removed from his post by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in conjunction with President Mamnoon Hussain. The two met last Wednesday and took the decision to replace Dr Khan, who had been in post for 14 years, after a series of allegations, offered with little by way of substantiation, made by Mustafa Kamal, a former Mayor of Karachi. One might be led to wonder why it is that on the basis of some broad allegations, which are little different in content to those made against any number of political figures, be used to unseat Dr Khan but are not used to unseat others of similar rank and status.

The newly-sworn Governor who by no stretch of the imagination is in the first flush of youth, was one of the aspirants for the post of President in 2003 and 2008, and has had his sell-by date extended as much for expediency as for any outstanding potential as a provincial governor. The outgoing governor was duly lauded for his long list of achievements, and the incoming governor expressed his desire to extend development projects across Sindh and to attend to the law-and-order situation in Karachi. There was little else that he could say, and with an increasingly unequal power struggle in train between the MQM (L) and the MQM(P) and the equivalent of a low-level urban war being fought between the Rangers, some sections of the police and assorted extremists and gangsters across the city — the new man has a full agenda.

Whilst it is undeniable that there has been an improvement in the law-and-order environment in Karachi it remains a shambles of a city. Plagued by petty crime, a ramshackle arterial infrastructure marred by delayed and incomplete projects, a circular railway that again looks like it is unlikely to happen and in parts dying of thirst — the new governor is going to be busy. We wish him well.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2016.

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