Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday forwarded a summary to President Asif Ali Zardari to appoint Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) senior leader Nehal Hashmi as the Sindh governor.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif had forwarded a summary for Hashmi’s appointment as the Sindh governor to President Zardari, adding the prime minister had met Hashmi in Islamabad and congratulated him on his proposed appointment.
Once approved by the president, Hashmi would formally assume the office of Governor of Sindh, replacing the MQMP’s Kamran Khan Tessori.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh had long criticized Tessori, accusing him of acting beyond his mandate. It is unclear what impact this decision would have on ruling coalition partner MQM-P. According to local media, the party has begun internal consultations over the decision, and would soon issue a formal response.
A Karachi native, Hashmi served as adviser to then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif from 1997 to 1999. In 2014, he was appointed the PMLN’s general secretary for Sindh and was elected to the Senate from Punjab in 2015.