Murad Ali Shah returned as the chief minister for his second tenure in Sindh after the Sindh Assembly voted him successful on August 17.
Murad Shah who bagged all 97 PPP votes in the assembly against his rival Shaharyar Shar’s 61 votes has complaints that his development efforts in Karachi were ignored by his opponents in Karachi.
Syed Murad Ali Shah who succeeded his fellow Syed Qaim Ali Shah on July 26, 2016, is a civil engineer from NED University of Engineering & Technology—probably one of the major reasons that the leaders of professional engineering institutions have begun to believe he would bring about a change. Not only that but also his competence does create his merit too. ‘He is a competent engineer. He was two years junior to me in the university but I knew him studying late into the night and waking up early morning’, recalled Engineer Sohail Bashir, the Vice Chairman IEEP Karachi. Engineer Sohail Bashir is not alone who sees improvement is coming from the new chief minister. Vice Chairman Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) Engineer Inam Usmani also expected him to be a harbinger of delivery. “I am sure he will work appropriately and thus bring an improvement”, he said. He is a technical man and we believe the quality of engineering projects in Sindh would be improved; they must be economical too and be completed in due time, he says. For instance, he added a project costing Rs.100 in real terms should not be done in Rs.2000. We surely support him, he stated while talking to ER back in 2016. Sindh’s development has been a cause for concern and there was hardly any city or town in the province which spoke of improvement in terms of infrastructure.
Shah’s initiatives boosted many projects in Karachi Karachi and he mentioned in the assembly after taking oath those projects that he carried out during his tenure.
Now when he is back on the seat, he is expected to look into the provincial Annual development Programs (ADPs) which fall short of their fullest utilization and hundreds of development schemes remain in the doldrums. The chief minister has been in close contact with engineering universities including one his own—NED—and also with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology and professional engineering institutions. He is the only chief minister who consults these institutions, he aides claim.
By Manzoor Shaikh
