PML-N stalwart Nehal Hashmi sworn in as Sindh governor

PML-N stalwart Nehal Hashmi on Friday was sworn in as the new governor of Sindh, following his surprise appointment a day earlier.

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput administered the oath at a ceremony held in Karachi. Senior leaders were present at the televised ceremony, including PPP leader Saeed Ghani and Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah.

The newly-appointed governor spoke to the media after the oath-taking ceremony, where he said, “I want to give a message to the people of Karachi [..] that we will move forward with political struggle, faithfulness and honesty.”

Hashmi reiterated that his party’s message was that of peace, love, and development.

“We have an entire department for laptops for youth, programmes for their training, loan schemes, and other facilities,” he said.

“All the federal institutions here will become functional and work for progress in Sindh,” he said.

He said the provincial government would “follow in the footsteps of our sister, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, on how to lead a country towards progress”.

“We are political people, and we will resolve all the issues through dialogue; we will not pursue the politics of mischief,” he said.

Hashmi is a veteran politician who last served as a PML-N senator after his election in March 2015. However, a controversial speech he made in May 2017 landed him in hot water, culminating in his disqualification in February 2018.

On Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari approved Hashmi’s appointment as Sindh governor, hours after it was announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recommended his appointment to the post previously held by MQM’s Kamran Tessori.

A brief statement issued by the PM Office said that PM Shehbaz met Hashmi at the PM House and decided to nominate him as the governor of Sindh.

The surprise move to appoint Hashmi has drawn a strong reaction from ally MQM-P, which complained that it had not been taken on board before the decision to remove its nominee from office, calling it a “grave mistake” by Islamabad and vowing to soon decide its future course of action.

Speaking to the media at the Governor’s House on Thursday, the outgoing governor, Tessori, said that if he was punished for raising issues related to Gul Plaza and the ‘Karachi Bachao Conference’, he would continue to speak up for the city.

He remarked that he could reveal who had removed him and on whose instructions, but he chose not to do so.

Tessori congratulated the newly nominated Sindh governor, saying he had seen the news on TV channels and wished him success. He urged Hashmi to continue the initiatives launched during his tenure.

“No one remains in office forever,” he said, adding that he had never been a “mute, deaf or dummy governor” and did not want to be one.