KARACHI: A week after the formation of the new provincial government, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is seen as active in the matter of governance for improved performance compared to the past two terms, as he held meetings with his party’s key men in Sindh on Monday to get a briefing on their performance and to share his future strategy in different areas.

Firstly, Mr Bhutto-Zardari met Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who visited Bilawal House to meet the PPP chairman. A brief statement issued by Bilawal House said that the CM and PPP chairman mainly discussed the future strategy for governance.

“The chief minister briefed the party chairman about his future strategy to further improve governance and resolve issues faced by the people of the province,” it said.

However, the party said that the matter of expansion in the provincial cabinet also came under discussion.

The PPP chairman is directly monitoring the performance of Sindh ministers

“It’s a beginning and you will see frequent meetings of the [PPP] chairman with the chief minister and provincial ministers that would be focussed on their performance and a kind of direct check from the top leadership,” a senior PPP leader said about the background of the recent meetings.

After meeting with CM Shah, the PPP chairman met with Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani who briefed him about the role of his ministry in facilitating the local councils of the province for service delivery at the grass-roots level.

“The local governments are the basic tier of democracy and delivery of civic amenities to the people and their performance needs to be improved down to the union council levels,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said, according to the statement.

The recent activity of the PPP chairman came as his first on-record direct meetings with the Sindh chief minister and a key provincial minister. Party leaders believed it was the beginning of the implementation of his plan for improved governance in Sindh.

Despite hectic political activities at the national level, the PPP chairman has kept his focus on the affairs of the Sindh government where he could be seen more active and directly involved.

“The message to each and every member of the cabinet is very clear; he [Mr Bhutto-Zardari] wants results,” LG Minister Ghani told Dawn. “We were conveyed a very clear message well before we took oath and charge of our offices that he would keep a check on the performance of ministers and directly monitor their ministries.”

He said: “In our meeting, he asked for future plans and shared his thoughts to make my department’s performance better, not only in cities but also in rural areas to directly benefit the poor.”

The party leaders believed that the young chairman, who would turn 30 next month, already took a lead over other provinces while deciding and announcing the name of the Sindh chief minister. He would now be more focused on matters of governance in Sindh while leading the PPP from opposition benches in the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2018