Ailing governor named due to rift in PML-N Sindh

Insiders say PM picked Saeeduzaman Siddiqui following political discord

KARACHI: A rift within Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ranks in Sindh forced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to appoint ailing retired judge Saeeduzaman Siddiqui as the province’s governor, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to sources, PML-N leaders in Karachi wanted an Urdu-speaking governor as Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan’s replacement and floated the names
of Senator Mushahidullah Khan, Saleem Zia and Board of Investment Chairman Miftah Ismail, while party leaders from the rest
of Sindh insisted on filling the slot with a Sindhi-
speaker.



“As consensus could not be reached, the prime minister himself put forth Justice Siddiqui’s name,” a senior PML-N leader said. According to him, the premier chose the ailing justice because of his integrity, democratic dispensation, respect for rule of law and resistance to dictators. “The prime minister had no idea that Justice Siddiqui’s health was so precarious. The judge accepted the prime minister’s offer without hesitating for a minute,” the PML-N leader added.

PML-N sources said party leaders like Senator Nehal Hashmi and Saleem Zia have always held views different from those of their compatriots in Sindh like Ismail Rahu, Shah Mehmood Shah, Mumtaz Bhutto, Ghous Ali Shah and Imdad Chandio. But ever since the party came to power in 2013, the rift between its central and Sindh leadership has widened, particularly due to differences on the governor.

“Four former chief ministers – Ghous Ali Shah, Liaquat Jatoi, Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Mumtaz Bhutto – wanted to replace MQM’s Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan with one of them as governor,” a PML-N insider said. “But the party leadership kept Ebad as governor due to an understanding with MQM. The situation finally changed after the success of the Karachi operation.”

“Ghous Ali Shah, who was a close aide of Prime Minister Nawaz, clearly conveyed that he wanted the governor’s slot. The same message came from Mumtaz Bhutto, but the prime minister refused,” the insider said, adding that this had serious fallout on the party’s organisation in Sindh. “Many Sindh leaders complained that the prime minister’s lack of interest in the province was damaging the party.”



“I left the party because the prime minister ignored us. Despite our repeated requests, he was not serious about resolving Sindh’s issues. We began to see that PML-N was a Punjab-centric party,” said former PML-N MNA Hakeem Baloch, who has recently joined Pakistan Peoples Party. He said he too had urged the premier to replace Ebad with a ‘neutral’ governor, but his pleas went in vain.

Several other PML-N Sindh leaders are also in discussions to join PPP. “The Jamote family of Ibrahim Hyderi has already joined PPP and their MPA, Shafi Jamote, will also leave PML-N before the next elections,” a Jamote family member told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

Shafi himself did not comment on whether he plans to leave the ruling party when contacted, but confirmed he and others have been feeling ‘neglected’ by their leadership.



A similar response came from Thatta’s Sherazi group which won one National Assembly and three Sindh Assembly seats in the previous elections. “We will definitely seek out another path if our leadership continues to ignore us,” said PML-N MPA Ameer Hyder Shah Sherazi.

PML-N Sindh President Ismail Rahu confirmed to The Express Tribune that he and other provincial leaders were not consulted before the appointment of governor. “It is purely the prime minister’s prerogative to appoint his representative in Sindh, so he nominated Justice Siddiqui. But it is clear that we were not taken on board.”

Senator Nehal Hashmi, however, denied that there was any rift among PML-N Sindh ranks and that some leaders were not consulted on various issues. “It is Prime Minister Nawaz who has given Karachi the Green Line Project and included Karachi Circular Railways and the Thar power project in CPEC,” he said. “The prime minister has also given Sindh and Pakistan a big gift by improving law and order in Karachi.”



“Those who have left the party had vested interests, but we will emerge as a big force in Karachi and other districts of Sindh in the 2018 elections,” the senator added.

Despite repeated attempts, other senior PML-N Sindh leaders could not be reached.

Meanwhile, sources said Prime Minister Nawaz has called a meeting of the Sindh chapter of PML-N to evolve consensus on the new governor for the province. The meeting will be held in Islamabad soon, they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2017.