KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that a party nominates a candidate for chief minister’s office and the provincial assembly elects him.
Then it becomes prerogative of the party and the assembly to allow someone to continue as chief minister whether he is in jail or anywhere else, he said on Saturday while addressing a press conference at Chief Minister’s House. Dr Bande Ali Leghari, a leading political figure in Dadu, announced at the press conference he is quitting PTI and joining the PPP.
To a question, the chief minister said the party and the provincial assembly were empowered to allow him to continue as chief minister or make him resign if he is arrested. “I am surprised to see that some friends in the media always talk about my arrest,” he said and asked why he would be arrested when he is cooperating with the NAB in inquiry.
The chief minister said the PPP had a strength of 98 MPAs in the provincial assembly and after the by-election on two seats, Larkana and Johi, the party’s strengthen would reach 100. “The party and the assembly have the authority and the power to take decision whether to keep the chief minister or remove him, no matter he is in jail or not,” he said.
Murad Ali Shah said that NAB wanted to know whose authority it was to give tariff. “It is my subject and I can write a thesis on it,” he said and added that he had talked about the tariff in last four CCI meetings.
To a question about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech in the UN General Assembly, the chief minister said that he only spoke about Kashmiri people and Indian atrocities, but he did not press the General Assembly to hold plebiscite in Indian-held Kashmir. He said the prime minister forgot other Muslims and their plight. Shah said that speeches of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto in the UN General Assembly were part of history and they speak loud and clear about statesmanship of these two PPP leaders.