Even if one were to concede all of Interior Minister Sh Rashid Ahmed’s arguments, it is still not possible to see how he arrived at the conclusion he has reached, of imposing governor rule in Sindh. It is another matter that his arguments are hardly convincing. One of his main contentions is that the presence of PTI MNAs in Sindh House, who intend to vote in the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister, is proof that loyalties were being bought. How he made that particular deduction is known only to himself, and presumably his boss, Prime Minister Imran Khan.
More likely, it seems, he (and his boss) have been greatly irked by the role Sindh House appears to be playing in providing the PPP (which is in power in Sindh) a place in Islamabad which allows it to keep PTI MNAs who have decided to go against Mr Khan. Using Article 234 of the Constitution to dismiss a provincial government solely to gain control of its rest-house in Islamabad seems a little extreme, and amounts to taking a sledgehammer while attempting to kill a fly. In the midst of all that is happening, does the government wish to merely add to its troubles by imposing President’s rule in Sindh? The proclamation has to be validated by a joint sitting resolution in two months. The government barely enjoyed a joint-sitting majority, which it may well have lost now. Does it really want to open that particular can of worms?
The imposition of Governor’s Rule would probably not be a legal challenge, for it would appear not as a governance issue, but as a political one, and governor rule in a province can only be proclaimed if it appears that there is breakdown to the constitutional machinery. None of the symptoms are visible in the province, and events in Islamabad may not allow the province of Sindh to be taken over in such a cavalier fashion. If this is an example of how the PM has been served by his ministers and confidants, it might show why he is in the crisis he now faces, and which, by the way, will not be solved by imposing Governor’s rule on Sindh. After all, it makes the wild assumption that the PPP has nowhere else to keep any PTI defectors it wants to keep secure.
