Sindh cabinet undergoes major reshuffle

Chawla reappointed Excise Minister, Najmi Alam, Malkani lose Fisheries and Livestock, Board and University portfolios

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The Sindh government has announced a major cabinet reshuffle, changing the portfolios of several provincial ministers.

Under the changes, Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has lost the Excise portfolio, Najmi Alam has lost Fisheries, Livestock, while Mohammad Ali Malkani has lost the Board and University portfolio.

According to the notification, Mukesh Kumar and Babul Khan Bhayo have rejoined the Sindh Cabinet, while three advisors and ten special assistants to the Chief Minister of Sindh have been assigned new portfolios.

In a series of changes, Mukesh Kumar Chawla has been appointed as the Excise Minister again, taking over from Sharjeel Memon, while Mohammad Ali Malkani has been reassigned to the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.

Meanwhile, Dost Ali Rahimoon has been removed from the ministry and appointed as an advisor, while Babul Khan Bhayo has been made the advisor for the Forest Department. Najmi Alam has lost his responsibilities for Fisheries and Livestock and will now serve as the Advisor for Katchi Abadi.

Other new appointments in the Cabinet include Lal Chand Ukrani as Special Assistant for Minority Affairs, Sarfraz Rajar as Special Assistant for Social Protection, and Qasim Naveed Qamar as Special Assistant for Public-Private Partnerships.

PPP lead in local bodies' by-polls

The by-elections on six local bodies' seats and one cantonment board seat in the six districts of Karachi concluded amid low voter turnout on Thursday.

Until last reports, PPP was leading while Jamaat Islami Karachi chief Munem Zafar Khan accused Sindh's ruling party of "using election commission official to steal the mandate."

The polling process was overall peaceful, barring few incidents of workers of rival parties chanting slogans against each other or coming to fisticuffs.

In one such incident, when Mayor Murtaza Wahab came to the polling station in Gizri, PTI workers started chanting slogans, however, he went on to hug them so as to calm down the tempers.

As per unofficial result of Ward 4 of District West Manghopir Town UC 5, candidate of Jamaat-e-Islami Irfan Umar won with 108 votes, while PPP candidate Muhammad Irfan managed to get only 32 votes, surprisingly only four more than independent candidate Shakeel Ahmed could catch.

The total number of voters in this ward was 2,617; out of which only 237 votes were declared valid and the turnout was 4.39%.