Sindh govt appoints five more special assistants to CM

Number of special assistants stands at 11

KARACHI: The Sindh government appointed five more special assistants to chief minister on Monday, bringing the total number of special assistants to 11. As many as 16 ministers and two advisers are already part of the provincial cabinet.

According to a notification issued by services, administration and coordination department, Moula Bakhsh Mubejo, Pir Noorullah, Riaz Hussain Shah, Veerji Kolhi, a human rights activist who is also a brother of PPP Senator Krishna Kumari Kolhi, and Nasima Ghulam Hussain are the new additions.

Waqar Mehdi, Rashid Rabbani, Ashfaq Memon, Qasim Naveed and Dr Katumal Jewan are already working as special assistants to chief minister without any portfolios.

Veerji, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) union council chairperson from Nangarkar tehsil, spent his early life as a bonded labourer along with his sister, and later rose to become a human rights activist.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment by Tharparkar District and Sessions judge in February 2017 in a murder case over a land dispute between Kolhi and Shoro family.

Later, PPP chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, intervened and with the help of the then PPP Minister Jam Khan Shoro settled the bloody dispute.

With the appointment of Veerji as chief minister's special assistant, the total number of scheduled caste Hindus in Sindh cabinet has reached two.

The PPP has already given party's reserve ticket for MPA to Surendar Valasai, a Dalit from Thar, and elected Krishna as senator.