Dr Muhammad Ali Thallo has filed an application seeking a declaration from the Sindh High Court that Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is ineligible to be a member of the Sindh Assembly and consequently the chief minister because of his mental and physical health.
He maintains that Shah has submitted different dates of birth. According to the Sindh Assembly record, he was born in 1932, while the Chief Minister’s web site shows that he was born in 1933. According to the applicant, Qaim Ali Shah’s son Munawar Shah retired from government service six years ago, which means he is now 66 years old. “This implies that the chief minister became a father at the age of 12.” His actual year of birth is 1927 and this is being hidden to allow Qaim Ali Shah to continue as a “rubber-stamp chief minister”, said the applicant.
On Wednesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan summoned Thallo. According to its notice, he has been asked to appear before the Chief Election Commissioner in Islamabad on March 12 at 11 am. He has been asked to appear in person or through a counsel and has been warned that if he fails to appear, the matter will be decided in his absence.
According to his web site, the chief minister has a BA from Karachi University and LLB from SM Law College, Karachi. He was elected chairman of the District Council of Khairpur during Ayub Khan’s era. He was elected an MNA in 1970 and became a federal minister for industries and Kashmir affairs. He was elected an MPA in 1990 and was appointed the Leader of the Sindh Assembly. He was elected a Senator in 1997 and an MPA in 2002. In 2008, he became chief minister of Sindh for the second time.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2011.
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