Pakistan People’s Party’s poor performance or bad governance in Sindh is likely to haunt it in the forthcoming general elections.
It’s not as if it did not have a chance. The PPP has continuously been in power since 2008. Indeed, after ZA Bhutto’s tenure, the party was in power twice under the leadership of prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the Centre as well as in Sindh. Its governments have, however, consistently been accused of corruption since it was at the helm in 1993, and these allegations have turned into a permanent label. Oddly though, none of its governments or leadership have done anything to seriously tackle these perceptions and remove this label till today. Instead, it has persistently failed to deliver, thus reinforcing its public reputation as a bad ruler and exacerbating disappointment and resentment among the people of Sindh.
With the upcoming elections in mind, the party’s leadership did do one thing to try to improve public opinion: it changed its chief minister in July 2016, removed Qaim Ali Shah and brought in the comparatively more youthful and promising Syed Murad Ali Shah. He got off to a roaring start by initiating development projects on a fast-track basis and with better planning, and tried to introduce a culture of delivery in the bureaucracy. But he was not given a free hand by the party leadership, especially when it came to the crucial mechanism of transfers and postings because of deeply vested interests. Instead, his powers were clipped by taking away from him the most important portfolio of the Home Department.
The party’s leadership handed it to one of its blue-eyed members of the Sindh Assembly, Suhail Anwar Siyal. The main reason behind Siyal’s appointment appeared to be the government’s war with IG AD Khawaja who the PPP wanted to force from office at any cost. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was not deemed up for the job because of his reluctance to cross legal limitations. After delegating the portfolio of the Home Department to Siyal, the government saw it fit to withdraw the IG’s powers to transfer and post SPs, and restrain him from even departmental meetings. These actions made the government look bad and had the effect of making a hero out of AD Khawaja who had already earned a good reputation during service.
The change of command at the top in Sindh thus failed to improve the performance of the PPP government and did not come close to altering the party’s image in the province. And then, it did itself a further disservice by restraining the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from taking action against corruption in government departments. The PPP, with its clear majority in the Sindh house of elected representatives, succeeded in passing a bill to repeal the NAB Ordinance in the jurisdiction of Sindh in July. Dozens of provincial ministers and lawmakers belonging to the ruling PPP were facing corruption charges in several NAB cases so the timing could not have been worse (or better depending on which side you are on). Some of them are out on bail before arrest. The number of bureaucrats in the Sindh government runs into the hundreds and many of them have been convicted in corruption cases by NAB courts. This was why legal experts who are convinced that repealing the NAB ordinance was the assembly’s constitutional right also see foul play and malafide intention in the move.
These two developments have opened the PPP to criticism. A rally was organized by the Sindh United Party (SUP) on Sunday, August 20, in Karachi. Though the title of the rally was ‘Sindh March’ against corruption, religious extremism and terrorism, its focus was corruption and bad governance. SUP leader Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah announced that they would challenge the provincial law passed to repeal the NAB Ordinance in court. Other opposition parties have already challenged the law in the Sindh High Court, and the court has asked NAB to continue working on its current cases.
Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah is a former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, and the grandson of prominent nationalist leader, the late GM Syed. His politics is Sindh-centric, however, he believes in parliamentary politics, contrary to his grandfather who led a separatist movement. Sunday’s rally is believed to be part of the forthcoming election campaign against PPP. Jalal Mahmood Shah could be acceptable to most nationalist groups because of his family background. Will he be able to lead a flank of anti-PPP forces during the campaigning? This is what everyone is waiting to see. However, one thing is already clear: anti-PPP forces in Sindh will use its poor performance and corruption as a powerful tool to contest the elections against it.
The writer is a senior reporter based in Karachi
It’s not as if it did not have a chance. The PPP has continuously been in power since 2008. Indeed, after ZA Bhutto’s tenure, the party was in power twice under the leadership of prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the Centre as well as in Sindh. Its governments have, however, consistently been accused of corruption since it was at the helm in 1993, and these allegations have turned into a permanent label. Oddly though, none of its governments or leadership have done anything to seriously tackle these perceptions and remove this label till today. Instead, it has persistently failed to deliver, thus reinforcing its public reputation as a bad ruler and exacerbating disappointment and resentment among the people of Sindh.
With the upcoming elections in mind, the party’s leadership did do one thing to try to improve public opinion: it changed its chief minister in July 2016, removed Qaim Ali Shah and brought in the comparatively more youthful and promising Syed Murad Ali Shah. He got off to a roaring start by initiating development projects on a fast-track basis and with better planning, and tried to introduce a culture of delivery in the bureaucracy. But he was not given a free hand by the party leadership, especially when it came to the crucial mechanism of transfers and postings because of deeply vested interests. Instead, his powers were clipped by taking away from him the most important portfolio of the Home Department.
The party’s leadership handed it to one of its blue-eyed members of the Sindh Assembly, Suhail Anwar Siyal. The main reason behind Siyal’s appointment appeared to be the government’s war with IG AD Khawaja who the PPP wanted to force from office at any cost. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was not deemed up for the job because of his reluctance to cross legal limitations. After delegating the portfolio of the Home Department to Siyal, the government saw it fit to withdraw the IG’s powers to transfer and post SPs, and restrain him from even departmental meetings. These actions made the government look bad and had the effect of making a hero out of AD Khawaja who had already earned a good reputation during service.
The change of command at the top in Sindh thus failed to improve the performance of the PPP government and did not come close to altering the party’s image in the province. And then, it did itself a further disservice by restraining the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from taking action against corruption in government departments. The PPP, with its clear majority in the Sindh house of elected representatives, succeeded in passing a bill to repeal the NAB Ordinance in the jurisdiction of Sindh in July. Dozens of provincial ministers and lawmakers belonging to the ruling PPP were facing corruption charges in several NAB cases so the timing could not have been worse (or better depending on which side you are on). Some of them are out on bail before arrest. The number of bureaucrats in the Sindh government runs into the hundreds and many of them have been convicted in corruption cases by NAB courts. This was why legal experts who are convinced that repealing the NAB ordinance was the assembly’s constitutional right also see foul play and malafide intention in the move.
These two developments have opened the PPP to criticism. A rally was organized by the Sindh United Party (SUP) on Sunday, August 20, in Karachi. Though the title of the rally was ‘Sindh March’ against corruption, religious extremism and terrorism, its focus was corruption and bad governance. SUP leader Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah announced that they would challenge the provincial law passed to repeal the NAB Ordinance in court. Other opposition parties have already challenged the law in the Sindh High Court, and the court has asked NAB to continue working on its current cases.
Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah is a former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, and the grandson of prominent nationalist leader, the late GM Syed. His politics is Sindh-centric, however, he believes in parliamentary politics, contrary to his grandfather who led a separatist movement. Sunday’s rally is believed to be part of the forthcoming election campaign against PPP. Jalal Mahmood Shah could be acceptable to most nationalist groups because of his family background. Will he be able to lead a flank of anti-PPP forces during the campaigning? This is what everyone is waiting to see. However, one thing is already clear: anti-PPP forces in Sindh will use its poor performance and corruption as a powerful tool to contest the elections against it.
The writer is a senior reporter based in Karachi