Nabeel Gabol to resign over “behaviour” of Babar Ghori

[Naveed Yaseen]

Cites political incapacity as reason; sources claim tussle due to rift over contract awarding

Saturday, May 23, 2009
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.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179045