According to the claims by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar, the removal of Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, representing MQM (P), without any consultation with the party, gives “a clear message” that the federal government did not “need” the party anymore. Could this be the final blow?

Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader and Karachi-based lawyer, Nehal Hashmi, has been sworn in as the 35th governor of Sindh in a ceremony held at the Governor’s House in Karachi.

The approval was granted on the advice of PM Shehbaz under Articles 48 and 101 of the Constitution. The president, Asif Ali Zardari, also signed the commission of appointment, formalising Hashmi’s nomination for the constitutional office, a presidential news release said.

Who is Nehal Hashmi?

• As a student, he founded the All Pakistan Youth League.
• Officially joined politics in the 1990s.
• He joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in 1992 and acted as an adviser on law, justice, and human rights to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from 1997 to 1999.
• He has represented clients in several high-profile cases, including matters involving Nawaz Sharif before the National Accountability Bureau and proceedings related to the Murtaza Bhutto case.
• Hashmi served as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president for Karachi in 2012 and was appointed the party’s general secretary in Sindh in August 2014.
• In 2015, he was elected to the Senate on a Punjab seat on the PML-N ticket.
• He has also been active in raising civic issues related to Karachi.

Former Governor of Sindh, Kamran Tessori, congratulated the new senator and added, “I will continue to speak for Karachi’s rights and against the incompetence of the Sindh government.”

Nihal Hashmi is the third governor from the PML-N.