Murad hopes polls won’t eat into his powers

Sindh CM says election panel should not withdraw powers of the government

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should not withdraw the powers of his government to post and transfer key administration and police officials in Karachi and Hyderabad because local government elections are going to be held in the two cities.

The ECP has written to the Sindh government twice to immediately withdraw the officers appointed as administrators in Hyderabad and two districts of Karachi as such transfers and posting are banned due to the pending elections in the two cities.

The local government polls in the two cities are scheduled to be held on January 15, 2023.

Polls deferred many times

The polls were postponed several times due to floods and heavy rains in the province.

The new administrators have been appointed in line with the accord signed between Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) before the latter decided to leave the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf-led coalition government earlier in the year.

Though ECP is not happy with the new appointments, Sindh Governor, Kamran Khan Tessori, who belongs to MQM, held a meeting with the newly appointed administrators in Karachi and Hyderabad and asked them to resolve civic issues as early as possible.

While talking to media, Shah said it was not a workable idea to keep deferring transfers and posting of key officials in Karachi and Hyderabad because of the fact that government polls have been pending in the two cities for the past many months.

He said that his government would write to the ECP to inform that transfer or posting of any senior police official, deputy commissioner, or assistant commissioner had no bearing at all on the conduct of the local government polls.

The CM said that these governance-related affairs should be dealt with as business as usual.