A founding member of the party, Qaim Ali Shah has been CM of Sindh for three terms - 1988, 2008 and 2013. Like most PPP stalwarts, he also owes the launch of his political career to General Ayub Khan, under whose Basic Democracies experiment Shah was first elected.
As student at Karachi University in 1988, I saw Qaim Ali Shah selected as CM for the first time. It was a time of great hope. Benazir Bhutto was PM. We dreamt things would change for the better.
We had seen the good work done in Punjab by the then CM Mian Nawaz Sharif. If the PM or President was at his side, a CM could deliver, we thought. But that didn’t happen.
BB herself was under attack. In Sindh, the MQM and the PPP played games with each other. The province suffered greatly.
As a student, I would collate a column for The Star, an evening newspaper, in which I took quotes of different people about random things. It was a popular item and the brainchild of the then editor of the paper, Ghazi Salahuddin.
One of the best quotes I got was after Shah was ousted. A person commented “the only visible growth in Sindh in the past year has been the chief minister’s moustache.” In those days there was sadly no social media.
The quote was picked up and reproduced by several publications, including Newsline magazine as it summed up the disappointment of many.
I wonder why he couldn’t deliver. Shah Sahab comes from an educated background. I know two of his children personally and a third I have met and was impressed. Son Asad Ali Shah, a chartered accountant by profession, was my senior at Ferguson & Co.
While I dropped out, Asad went on to become partner of his own company and today plays a lead role in the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He tried his bit at politics, realized it’s not his cup of tea and went back to his world.
I remember daughter Nafisa Shah from her days with Newsline magazine. She was a hard working and enterprising reporter whose work on Karo-Kari was trail-blazing. Nafisa would roam Karachi in her battered white Suzuki 800 car with not a care for protocol or safety.
Once she was refused entry to the CM house when she drove up in her dilapidated car. She had a hard time convincing the guards that she was the CM’s daughter. Nafisa is now a seasoned politician.
Daughter Naheed Shah Durrani is a civil servant who came to our offices over a story we had done. She did not threaten or use her father’s card. She simply stated things as they were and let us do our job. Pertinent to remember that Naheed qualified for CSS on her own merit.
Ironically she has been removed from her secretary position in the past by her father the CM. She was causing headaches for her minister who wanted to make money and she wouldn’t let him.
With such upright children, a political legacy and the right credentials, why then I wonder has Qaim Ali Shah failed miserably as a CM.
Today Sindh is near bankruptcy. Corruption is endemic. Law and order has more or less broken down. Jobs are sold to the highest bidder. Ministers themselves are involved in scams.
The writ of the state has been compromised. The province is in a near state of anarchy. Shah has stuffed the government with party faithful as well as near and dear ones. This is now his legacy.
One has to travel no further than Khairpur to see the mess his own constituency is in. Apart from some projects which are an eyewash the place is in a shambles. Over the years nothing was done for education or social development. And yet the people vote for the Syeds because they feel they have no one else to turn to.
Possibly this is true of most politicians of Sindh now. With no accountability, it’s a race to make money at whatever cost possible. The people be damned. But for how long will this continue, I wonder.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2014.
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Impressive to read about his honest, hard working and upright children. Maybe hope for the next generation?
Same situation all over the province of Sindh.
The author forgot to mention that Shah is also an epicurean. A connoisseur of fine foods and leads a privileged lifestyle. And two personal cooks accompany him.. Wherever he goes. Journalists come from miles, and make it a point to arrive at lunch or dinner. On the pretext of interviewing him. Last year, the well known news breaking lunch spread, provided by Qaim Shah to journalists was extra ordinary. Since the newsmen were covering famine ! Children dying of malnutrition ! And drought ! The very famous lunch menu, still remembered, consisted of :- Malai Boti. Chicken Tikka. Biryani. Fried Fish, Koftas. And Nan. Rest assured, the well fed journalists, wrote nary a negative thing about the Chief Malfeasant....er...Chief Minister.
You can't shame the shameless.........Qaim Ali Shah has been reduced to such a pathetic state by his boss that I for one feel a twinge of sympathy for him. His is in a state of political atrophy very much like the PPP-Z.