By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Nehal Hashmi, a longtime stalwart of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, took the oath of office on Friday as the new governor of Sindh, capping a rapid and unexpected appointment that has strained relations within Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.
Sindh High Court Chief Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput administered the oath at a ceremony at the Governor’s House in Karachi. The event, broadcast live on national television, drew a cross-section of provincial political figures, including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Sindh Home Minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar, Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah and PPP leader Saeed Ghani. Also present were PML-N Sindh president Bashir Memon and a contingent of party leaders and workers.
In his first remarks to reporters after the swearing-in, Hashmi struck a conciliatory tone while signaling his party’s priorities. “I want to give a message to the people of Karachi that we will move forward with political struggle, faithfulness and honesty.” He added that the PML-N’s core message remained one of “peace, love and development.”
Hashmi highlighted a suite of youth-focused initiatives his party has championed nationally, including a dedicated laptop program, training schemes, loan facilities and other support measures. He pledged that federal institutions operating in Sindh would be made fully functional to drive provincial progress and vowed that the new provincial administration 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.”
The appointment, approved on Thursday by President Asif Ali Zardari on the advice of Prime Minister Sharif, came barely 24 hours before the oath-taking. A terse statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif had met Hashmi at the PM House in Islamabad, forwarded the necessary summary to the president and personally congratulated the new governor. Until Thursday, the post had been held by Kamran Tessori of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), a key coalition partner.
The move has triggered an immediate and pointed backlash from MQM-P. A party spokesperson said the federal government had not consulted the group before removing its nominee, describing the decision as a “grave mistake” by Islamabad. The party said it would hold internal consultations and soon announce its future course of action.
Tessori, who departed for Saudi Arabia on Thursday to perform Umrah, offered a measured but pointed farewell from the Governor’s House before leaving. Speaking to reporters, he said he had no intention of remaining silent on Karachi’s problems. “If I was punished for raising issues related to Gul Plaza and the ‘Karachi Bachao Conference,’ I will continue to speak up for the city,” he said. Tessori added that he could name those responsible for his removal and the instructions behind it but had chosen not to.
Hashmi, a lawyer by training and a native of Karachi’s Malir area, brings decades of PML-N affiliation to the largely ceremonial but symbolically significant role. He served as adviser to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on law and justice from 1997 to 1999. In 2012 he was named president of the PML-N’s Karachi chapter; two years later, in August 2014, he became general secretary of the party’s Sindh wing.
Elected to the Senate in March 2015 on a PML-N ticket from a Punjab-allocated seat, Hashmi ran into controversy when a speech he delivered in May 2017 led to his disqualification by the Election Commission in February 2018. His party membership was suspended that year and later restored in 2021. He had most recently served as a PML-N senator before the latest appointment. Hashmi’s elevation marks the return of a PML-N loyalist to a province long dominated by the Pakistan Peoples Party.
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