Governor Ebad wants to lead Karachi operation

The News Tahir Hasan Khan Wednesday, September 18, 2013 From Print Edition KARACHI: The federal government has asked the disgruntled Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan to keep on hold his decision to resign from the office till the return of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from Turkey later this week, MQM sources said on Tuesday. Ebad, the longest-serving governor in the history of Pakistan who is in office since December 2002, has expressed his displeasure over the command of the ongoing targeted action against criminals in Karachi. According to sources familiar with the situation, Ebad has conveyed to the federal government that being a representative of the federation, he should be commanding the operation instead of Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and that he would only take back his decision to quit if his demand is considered seriously. “The governor has conveyed to the federal government that he would return to office only if his demand is met and the command of the operation is handed over to him rather than the chief minister,” said a senior leader of the MQM, requesting not to be named Sources also said that the leadership of the MQM, both in London and in Karachi, has also asked the governor to exercise his influence and build pressure on the federal government with regards to the ongoing operation. A top MQM leader Khalid Maqbool was also quoted as saying by some media reports that Governor Ebad may not return to his office. The MQM has raised serious reservations about the ongoing operation, saying that it was not across the board and was being used to target the party in an attempt to push it to the wall. The situation took an ugly turn last week with the arrest of Nadeem Hashmi, a former member of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the MQM, after which the governor also departed for Dubai. Hashmi was released on Tuesday. The MQM officially says that the governor had gone to Dubai because of the sickness of his wife, though sources say the main issue was the displeasure over the way the so-called targeted action was being conducted in Karachi. Prime Minister Sharif, meanwhile, is also unwilling to let Ebad leave the office of the governor, and has expressed the intention of resolving the issue.“The prime minister wanted the Sindh chief minister to accompany him to Turkey so that he could discuss the situation after the start of the operation as well as the issue of the governor’s resignation with him,” said a senior Sindh government official. “However, the chief minister declined the invitation politely, saying that as the captain of the operation he would want to stay back,” said the official.The demand by the governor to command the ongoing operation is likely to further widen the rift between the MQM and the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), the ruling party in the province. The two parties have been in a coalition in the previous government, both at the federal and the provincial level, though the relationship had remained far from being cordial.On several occasions the MQM decided to quit the coalition, only to rejoin later after assurances from the then government and the PPP leadership. However, after the May general elections, the MQM decided to part ways with the PPP and sit on the opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly.The PPP leadership has also denied allegations from the MQM that the ongoing operation is targeting the latter, exposing the differences between the two on important issues.