KARACHI: Making a comeback to the Sindh cabinet after more than six years, Sharjeel Inam Memon took the oath as the new provincial information minister on Friday.

Mr Memon has been assigned the portfolio of information, which was earlier held by Saeed Ghani who would retain the portfolio of labour and human resources.

The provincial government has also de-notified Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah.

Acting Sindh Governor Agha Siraj Durrani administered the oath to Mr Memon as a provincial minister in a ceremony held at Governor House.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, members of the provincial cabinet and senior officials attended the ceremony.

While serving under the same position in 2016, the National Accountability Bureau filed a reference against Mr Memon and accused him of committing corruption in the award of advertisements of provincial government’s awareness campaigns in electronic media involving over Rs5 billion.

After staying on bail for months, he was finally arrested by NAB in October 2017 when the Sindh High Court rejected his bail plea. In June 2019, he was released from prison after the SHC granted him bail.

He thanked Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and the Sindh chief minister for showing confidence in him.

He expressed the resolve that under the decades-old party policy, he would contribute his part for freedom of expression and free media in the province.

“The PPP has always given weight to this ministry [information],” he said. “It’s because being a true democratic party, it believes that people in the country have the right to know and express their opinion. My task as the head of this ministry will be only to channelize this practice and help every single person to get this right.”

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022