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Gabol
to resign over differences with Ghori
By Tahir Hasan Khan
Karachi:
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Minister of State for Port and
Shipping Nabeel Ahmad Gabol has decided to resign in protest over
the “behaviour” of Federal Minister Babar Ghori, a Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) minister.
“I am waiting for a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari. I have
already made a formal request to the president to change my
ministry, otherwise I have no option but to resign,” Gabol told The
News. “I also requested Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani thrice to
intervene and solve the issue,” he said, adding that the prime
minister had totally ignored his request. I am waiting for President
Zardari’s final decision,” he said.
Gabol will be the third PPP minister to resign, as two Karachi-based
federal ministers, Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman, have previously
resigned in protest against the policies of the government. He was
elected as Member of National Assembly (MNA) twice from Lyari.
The contentious minister, Babar Ghori, was federal minister for Port
and Shipping in the previous regime. The MQM had demanded from the
PPP that the ports and shipping portfolio be given to them, as was
the case in the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)-led
coalition government, where this portfolio was first given to MQM’s
Ahmed Ali and later to Ghori.
He is widely recognized as one of the main pillars of the MQM, and
he is also one of the members of the dialogue committee of the
party. Sources claimed that the sharing of power between the PPP and
MQM is a difficult task, and it was clear that the MQM would not
agree to any power sharing agreement.
Gabol claimed that he had already conveyed to Prime Minister Gilani
that he would resign because he had no power and he could not serve
his voters and party workers. “I have no powers to even give a
single job to a PPP worker. There is no justification to hold the
office as a junior minister, when Ghori could not do anything for my
poor voters. It is better to resign instead of holding the office as
powerless minister,” Gabol told The News.
Detailing his conundrum, Gabol complained that he had appointed more
than 80 poor people from his constituency in the ministry before
Ghori was inducted as the senior minister. He claimed that Ghori
dismissed the service of more than half of those employed without
any reason.
However, other sources disclosed that the main reason of the tussle
between Gabol and Ghori was a Port Qasim contract awarded to a
Chinese company by the senior minister despite objections raised by
the junior minister. Sources said that Gabol rejected a Rs34 billion
contract due to technical reasons while Ghori awarded this contract
without taking into confidence the minister of state.
The state minister claimed that technical experts told him that the
existing infrastructure and some berths of the ports would be
damaged due to deep dragging at Port Qasim, and this loss could not
be reparable. The purpose of the deep dragging was to provide
big-sized ships the facility to enter in the port, and the contract
was awarded to extend the port facilities.
Sources said that the chairman and some officers of Port Qasim were
in strong favour of this contract, and they started lobbying against
the state minister. After inducting the MQM minister Ghori as
minister, the bureaucracy managed to convince him to award this
contract.
One of the other factors of the differences between Gabol and Ghori
was the promotion of the chairman of Port Qasim. The state minister
was opposing the promotion while Ghori was backing him – eventually
he was promoted to the next grade as full chairman of Port Qasim.
The
News:Saturday, May 23, 2009
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