Daily Times

KARACHI: Although the recent waves of terrorism have badly affected almost all four provinces of the country, the Sindh government is still without a full time Home Minister, who could oversee the overall law and order situation in the province, Daily Times has learnt.

Moreover, the sincerity of the rulers could be gauged from the fact that there is no home minister in the province since July 2016 when the former home minister, Soahil Anwar Siyal, was sidelined in the new cabinet headed by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Sohail Anwar Siyal became popular after his alleged associate Asad Kharal and his younger brother Tariq Siyal had come face-to-face with paramilitary force in Larkana. He was accused by the Rangers of aiding the illegal release of Kharal – a junior clerk at Bakrani taluka municipal administration – from the custody of paramilitary officials who went to his house on July 12 to arrest him on corruption charges.

Meanwhile, in July 2016, the PPP leadership decided to replace the elderly chief minister, Qaim Ali Shah, with young Murad Ali Shah. In the reshuffling process, Sohail Anwar Siyal was denied the home ministry and the portfolio is lying with the chief minister himself, sources said.

Since then, the department has been directly run by the chief minister while important matters like maintaining strong coordination between home department and law enforcement agencies, day to day affairs etc are being badly run, the sources added.

Interestingly, the provincial home department was also without home secretary as the chief minister had accepted a long leave of Home Secretary Shakeel Mangnejo, who was going on a training in Lahore.