KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party leader Syed Murad Ali Shah was re-elected as Sindh Chief Minister for the third time during the provincial assembly elections held here on Monday, getting 112 votes while MQM-Pakistan candidate Ali Khursheedi got only 36 votes.
The session of the provincial assembly started at the scheduled time at about 2:00 PM and was presided over by Speaker Syed Awais Qadir Shah.
The session started with recitation of Quran followed by Naat-e-Rasool Maqbool (Peace be upon him).
After the completion of voting and counting process, Speaker Syed Awais Qadir Shah announced the result and declared Syed Murad Ali Shah as the Leader of the House.
The speaker also congratulated Syed Murad Ali Shah as the Chief Minister of Sindh for the third consecutive term.
In the election process for the post of Sindh Chief Minister, 9 MPs from Suni Itehad Council (SIC) and one from Jamaat-e-Islami abstained from voting.
After the announcement of the election results, the leaders of the Ministry of Finance and the opposition benches also greeted the newly elected Chief Minister.
“We expect PTI to play a positive role,” says CM Murad
Newly elected Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said he expects PTI to play a positive role in the provincial legislature.
Addressing the PTI-backed MPAs in the assembly, he said, “We are never afraid of criticism, nobody is perfect […] but if you don’t criticize, how would we learn?
“I want to thank the people on both sides and also the people of this province,” he added. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that Karachi was not separate from Sindh.
“Remember that Karachi is not a part of Sindh […], it is time to overcome this wrong thinking,” he asserted. CM Murad recalled that he grew up in Karachi and knows the city like the back of his hand.
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He also expressed hope that the opposition would play its due role in the assembly. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said his new mission is to provide clean drinking water across the province.
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said Sindh leads among all provinces in providing free healthcare.
Citing examples of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences and other facilities, he said people from all over the country were coming to Sindh for free medical treatment.
“You are asking how we secured votes in Sindh because we have shown our performance to the people,” CM Murad added. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has expressed confidence that PPP Chairman Asif Ali Zardari will be sworn in as President within the next few weeks.
In a victory speech to the Sindh Assembly, he said that there are only a handful of visionary leaders in Pakistan, including Benazir Bhutto, Zardari and Bilawal.
“I urge you all to vote for him [Zardari] in the elections,” he said. CM Murad further said that Bilawal will soon become the Prime Minister on the basis of votes.
“It is only Bilawal who has given the way forward,” said CM Murad, promising that his vision would be realized to the extent of Sindh. In his victory speech, newly elected Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah promised to tackle the growing street. crime in the province, especially Karachi.
“We have to review the operations in the riverine areas and those are the immediate challenges that the Sindh government will have,” he said. “Another law and order issue is drug abuse, we will pay attention to that.”
