KARACHI: A day after PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari presided over a party meeting in Dubai, the Sindh government reallocated on Wednesday portfolios of five cabinet members and announced a major reshuffle in the provincial bureaucracy within a week after making large-scale changes in the administrative machinery.

The portfolios of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Hazar Khan Bijarani, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Mukesh Kumar Chawla and Dr Sikandar Mandhro have been changed.

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With the latest reshuffle, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah replaced his government’s mouthpiece Sharjeel Memon with senior politician Nisar Khuhro.

According to a notification issued by the Sindh chief secretary, Mr Khuhro has been given the portfolio of irrigation and information departments. The portfolio of education and literacy department was taken from him and allocated to Mr Bijarani, who previously headed the ministry of the works and services department.

Mr Memon would continue to hold the portfolio of the archives and local government departments and he has been given the additional charge of the works and services department.

In addition to his portfolio of information technology, Mr Chawla has been given the charge of public health engineering and rural development.

Dr Mandhro, who holds the portfolios of parliamentary affairs, environment and the coastal development authority, has been given additional charge of the cooperation department.

Bureaucracy shake-up

The services, general administration and coordination department of Sindh issued notifications asking four officers to take their new charge with immediate effect.

“Additional chief secretary Mohammad Waseem has been posted as administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), relieving Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqi of the additional charge,” said an official, adding that he would also hold the office of additional chief secretary.

Sources in the KMC, however, did not see it as a wise move and said that the office of the KMC administrator could not be handled by an official doing so many other jobs. They cited the move made earlier by the government twice while first giving additional charge of the office to the managing director of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and then to the commissioner of Karachi.

“Director general of the Sindh Civil Services Academy Abdul Rasheed Solangi has been transferred as special secretary for public health with similar offices of local government and rural development. Senior member of the Sindh Board of Revenue Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah has been posted as chairman of the Enquiries and Anti-corruption and Aijaz Ahmed Memon has been ordered to take charge as secretary for the works and services department.”

The portfolio reshuffle and transfers and postings in the provincial bureaucracy came a day after the Sindh chief minister, accompanied by ministers Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sharjeel Memon and Mukesh Kumar Chawla, attended the Dubai meeting.

A similar sitting a week earlier led to transfer of director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority Manzoor Qadir, KMC chief Saqib Soomro, chairman of the Fisheries Cooperative Society Nisar Morai, additional IG of Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo and deputy commissioners of Sanghar, Dadu, Sujawal, Mithi, Jamshoro, Mirpurkhas, Shikarpur, Tando Allahyar and Naushahro Feroze districts.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015

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