Rahim rejects PML body for LG polls

By Razzak Abro

KARACHI: The five-member committee, headed by PML leader Maqbool Shaikh, constituted for preparations of the next local government elections in Sindh has become controversial after Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim-led group disowned it and questioned its authority.

“Neither such a committee has been formed by the party leadership nor has it the mandate for taking any initiative with regard to the next local government elections”, said Mir Hasan Khoso, a provincial leader of the party close to the chief minister, on Sunday.

Talking to the Daily Times on phone, he revealed that Chief Minister Dr Rahim, who was also provincial head of the party, had formed a committee in this regard that would formally be announced within two days.

He said Dr Rahim himself would be heading the committee and it would comprise 8-10 members. Sindh Revenue Minister and the provincial General Secretary of the party, Imtiaz Shaikh, would be coordinator of the committee, he added.

Khoso said the committee would have two sub-committees: one for urban areas and the other for rural areas. The committee would have to prepare party strategy for the next local government elections besides nominating candidates, he added. He emphatically denied the existence of any committee headed by Maqbool Shaikh and claimed that the Secretary-General of the party, Mushahid Husain, had also said he had no knowledge about the formation of any such committee.

Khoso said Dr Rahim had talked to Mushahid Husain and he told him (Dr Rahim) that he would be the head if such a committee was constituted.

A five-member committee, headed by a central leader of the party, Maqbool Shaikh, has recently been constituted. The other members of the committee are Sindh Irrigation Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari, former provincial revenue minister Altaf Husain Unar, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi and Ghulam Qadir Malkani.

Maqbool Shaikh had claimed that the committee had been constituted under the directives of the party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. The latter is abroad now.

On Saturday he told reporters that the committee members would soon begin touring the province to nominate party candidates for the next local government elections.

“Not only will nominations be made for local government elections, but candidates for the next general elections will also be recommended,” Maqbool Shaikh told the Daily Times on Saturday.

All recommendations would be sent for approval of the party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and the provincial chief of the party, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, he added.

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