Wasan on the double: Two new portfolios for Sindh's former home minister
Manzoor Wasan gets allotted ministry for Prisons and Mines and Mineral departments.
KARACHI:
Following a series of meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi, Manzoor Wasan has been assigned two portfolios in the Sindh cabinet on Thursday.
According to a notification by the services, general administration and coordination departments, Wasan has been allocated the ministry of prisons along with the mines and mineral departments.
Earlier, Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro had been overseeing the prisons department as an additional charge.
However, the portfolio of mines and mineral was lying vacant and in search of a new minister after Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) advisor Nasir Niazamani handed the ministry back to Sindh government in the immediate aftermath of the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO) being passed in September. Nizamani, along with other PML-F ministers and advisors had opted to sit in the opposition after the SPLGO was ratified by Governor Sindh in September.
There were also reports that the Sindh government had accepted the resignation of PML-F ministers, but till this report was filed, the government had not issued any notification to this effect.
Furthermore, when contacted, neither officials nor PML-F leaders had confirmed the report.
Talking to The Express Tribune, PML-F leader Imtiaz Shaikh said, “Our portfolios are being allotted to PPP ministers, which means we are now ministers without portfolios. One and a half months have lapsed, but we are still waiting to hear when our resignations would be accepted.”
He added that they would seek other legal options, if the government did not give them an answer.
It may be mentioned here that two ministers and advisors of the PML-F, along with one minister each from both National Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, had also tendered their resignations after parting ways with the government on the SPLGO issue in the first week of September.
Following a series of meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi, Manzoor Wasan has been assigned two portfolios in the Sindh cabinet on Thursday.
According to a notification by the services, general administration and coordination departments, Wasan has been allocated the ministry of prisons along with the mines and mineral departments.
Earlier, Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro had been overseeing the prisons department as an additional charge.
However, the portfolio of mines and mineral was lying vacant and in search of a new minister after Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) advisor Nasir Niazamani handed the ministry back to Sindh government in the immediate aftermath of the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO) being passed in September. Nizamani, along with other PML-F ministers and advisors had opted to sit in the opposition after the SPLGO was ratified by Governor Sindh in September.
There were also reports that the Sindh government had accepted the resignation of PML-F ministers, but till this report was filed, the government had not issued any notification to this effect.
Furthermore, when contacted, neither officials nor PML-F leaders had confirmed the report.
Talking to The Express Tribune, PML-F leader Imtiaz Shaikh said, “Our portfolios are being allotted to PPP ministers, which means we are now ministers without portfolios. One and a half months have lapsed, but we are still waiting to hear when our resignations would be accepted.”
He added that they would seek other legal options, if the government did not give them an answer.
It may be mentioned here that two ministers and advisors of the PML-F, along with one minister each from both National Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, had also tendered their resignations after parting ways with the government on the SPLGO issue in the first week of September.