DAWN
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edition

Change in Sindh

WHEN the blow came it was abrupt and, as befits Pakistani democracy, delivered without warning. Governor Moinuddin Haider was summoned to Islamabad and informed that his time was up. His replacement, the nondescript and largely unknown Mr Mamnoon Hussain, being summoned at the same time and told of his impending good fortune. The blow, again in line with how these things are done here, has been unaccompanied by any explanation of its necessity. In a difficult situation Governor Haider was acquitting himself reasonably well. What dire emergency called for his being thrown out at this juncture, especially when the law and order situation in Sindh, whose deterioration was the stated reason for imposing governor's rule in the province, had visibly improved? There has not been a word of explanation nor, to judge by past experience, will any be forthcoming. Governor Haider had his uses. He did a job, manned the ramparts when this was most needed but now that the prospect on the horizon is lighter he can safely be discarded.

Mr Mamnoon Hussain, however, is going to be only a figurehead. The appropriate notification having been issued, the real power passes on to the ever-patient and relentless Syed Ghaus Ali Shah who will be chief minister in all but name. The 'political' set-up that will thus be installed is an answer to the long-standing grievances of the Muslim League's stalwarts in Sindh and Karachi. They were unhappy with Moinuddin Haider precisely because he was not sufficiently 'political' - meaning thereby that he kept them at arm's length and would not allow them to meddle in the administrative affairs of the province. With that handicap removed, Syed Ghaus Ali Shah can go about creating 'favourable facts' on the ground and, more particularly, in the Sindh assembly where the Muslim League is in a woeful minority. This at least would be the theory. How this desire works out in practice remains to be seen. The last great creator of 'favourable facts' in Sindh politics was Jam Sadiq Ali. But his methods were his own and whether without them the same results (which brought notoriety to the Jam's chief ministership) can be achieved is a moot point.

But in thus carrying out this change, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif shows himself to be wholly oblivious to the rationale of governor's rule in Sindh. That was imposed and the chief minister dismissed because the law and order situation, dramatically underscored by the murder of Hakim Said, was getting from bad to worse with Mr Liaquat Jatoi, the then chief minister, unable to reverse the tide. Over the heads of Syed Ghaus Ali Shah and other Leaguers, Governor Haider was assigned the difficult task of running an impartial administration that was not to be swayed by political considerations. However, the main officials he was asked to work with - and these included the top police officials - were chosen by the Prime Minister himself. Eight months down the road what was required was an honest appraisal of governor's rule to determine whether it had succeeded or failed, and if it had proved useful, what exactly it had achieved. This could have pointed the way for the future: continuing with governor's rule or wrapping it up and allowing the reassertion of normal constitutional procedures culminating in the election of a chief minister by the existing Sindh assembly or by a newly elected one. The Ghaus Ali Shah formula is neither one thing nor the other. It lacks the merits of impartial governor's rule without the advantage of representative status which can only come from the Sindh assembly.

Syed Ghaus Ali Shah of course is not a newcomer to the power corridors of the province. But although he has been here before - at a time when in Islamabad General Zia-ul-Haq was master of all he surveyed - his own experience as the chief executive of Sindh should tell him that playing needless political games with the province's fortunes have cost it dear in the past, and indeed given rise to the many complexities which bedevil it to this day. Open and clean politics is what the province needs and this can come about only if the principle of representative democracy is respected.