KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party has decided to make changes in the Sindh cabinet including bringing in a new chief minister, a private TV channel reported.
PPP Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the decision was taken when some senior leaders of the party called on former President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Dubai on Sunday.
The current Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah was also present during the meeting. Bilawal Bhutto is scheduled to return to Karachi in the coming week to meet the provincial party leaders and lawmakers before finalising the proposed changes in the cabinet.
Qaim along with senior PPP leader Faryal Talpur and Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal left for Dubai on Saturday, where Bilawal and Zardari were waiting for them to begin crucial discussions regarding the party’s future strategy and leadership.
The leadership of PPP was expected to hold discussions with Zardari on two crucial issues concerning Sindh, which were the extension in Rangers’ powers in Karachi and more importantly whether they would force be allowed to exercise the same policing powers in the rest of the province.
Rangers’ raid-and-arrest powers had expired on July 19 as the last extension given by the provincial government was for 77 days and it was only for the Karachi division. Karachi corps commander had also met Sindh chief minister earlier in the week and had asked for the renewal of Rangers’ special powers as well as an extension of their mandate to the whole province.
Qaim told the corps commander that he would take a decision only after consulting the party high command that primarily includes Zardari. Bilawal and Zardari were expected to also review the affairs of the Sindh government for which Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah had also gone to Dubai.
Before leaving for Dubai, Qaim talked to the journalists at the Karachi airport and said that the party leadership would “review performance of the government and set new targets for development works”.
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