Opposition parties want Murad to abdicate

CM has lost the moral, legal and political basis to rule the province, say GDA, PTI

KARACHI: The opposition parties in Sindh Assembly on Saturday announced that they will approach the Supreme Court (SC) if the Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah did not resign from his post. Addressing a joint press conference, after an hour-long meeting in opposition leader’s chamber, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) lawmakers once again demanded that the CM should resign immediately. “The CM is one of the prime suspects in a money laundering case which means that he can influence the ongoing inquiry of the case. He must resign from the post of chief executive of the province,” GDA parliamentary leader Hasnain Mirza said.

Mirza who was flanked by Nand Kumar Goklani of his party said that the PPP government and its chief minister have now lost the credibility for its right to rule. “The CM has lost the moral, legal and political basis to rule the province.”

He added that the opposition was united in the Sindh Assembly and can bring change.



Referring to the opposition meeting, he said, “We have also discussed to bring in-house change in Sindh Assembly. Many PPP MPAs are also disillusioned with leadership decisions and Sindh government policies. We will submit recommendation of today’s meeting to our leadership who will decide about the final line of action,” he said.

PTI MPA Arsalan Taj Ghaman said that CM has lost the trust of the parliament after the disclosure of his association with the Omni Group. All the opposition parties will be on one platform to take action soon, he added.

Meanwhile, GDA General Secretary Ayaz Latif Palijo, while talking to the media in Hyderabad, said that the alliance has convened a meeting to chalk up a strategy to countervail the PPP’s narrative. He said that the meeting will be held in Karachi on January 8 under the chair of GDA President Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, who also heads Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F).

“The meeting will discuss the changing political situation in Sindh,” he said, predicting a decisive political role for the GDA in the coming days in Sindh. “The time has come to protect Sindh’s natural resources, agriculture and governance.”

He slammed the PPP’s provincial government failing to provide clean drinking water to the people and ensuring safety of their lives. Palijo wondered how such a government can provide food, education, health, employment and other facilities to the people.

He vowed that the people of Sindh will hold the PPP’s leadership accountable for every single penny allegedly plundered from the province’s public funds and for every crime the party allegedly committed against the people.



MMA and TLP take different line

The efforts of PTI to create a forward bloc in the PPP and unite the opposition parties to bring in a change in Sindh seemed to have suffered a setback as MMA refused to become a part of the decision to derail the PPP government. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) MPA Abdul Rashid, however, distanced himself from PTI and GDA’s decision to remove the CM and bring in-house change and said, “We will not support any unconstitutional step. The forward bloc is blot in the face of democracy.” He said MMA is against corruption and demands action against all corrupt people irrespective of their political affiliation.

Likewise, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan also refused to be a part of any such strategy. The number game doesn’t seem to be in favour of PTI or GDA. The opposition parties have 68 members in the Sindh Assembly. After refusal of three TLP and one MMA member, 64 members are left while the opposition parties will need at least 85 members’ to derail PPP’s government. Along with MMA MPA Rashid, TLP also didn’t participate in the opposition meeting on Saturday. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2018.