Staff Report
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that Sindh is our motherland and the people talking about its bifurcation are not only its enemies but they are the enemies of Pakistan. “This is a sensitive issue and I want to warn enemies of Pakistan don’t play with Sindh, otherwise it would cause them costly.”This he said while addressing a comprehensive press conference in which he spoke at length on different issues, including the development of Karachi and showed progress reports of his government through different slides on multimedia.
Murad Ali Shah said that some people were discussing such things which were constitutionally impossible. “The constitution talks about four provinces, and every province has its constitutional status, privileges, and role but some people have started talking about extra-constitutional measures just to achieve their wishful thinking,” he said and urged the media not to take such things seriously.
The CM said that some touts were talking about the division of Sindh just to serve the purpose of India which wanted to divert public attention from atrocities in the held Kashmir. He said: “Karachi is the capital of Sindh and it has the honor of running the country economically- this is the pain which keeps disturbing some people,” he said and added, “Sindh is a single unit and its division in our lives is not possible.” Mr. Shah said that a meeting was held between him and Federal Minister Asad Ummar which was attended by provincial ministers, Syed Nasir Shah and Saeed Ghani and Chairman PDMA Lt Gen. Mohammad Afzal were also present was aimed at discussing the issues of the cleanliness of stormwater drains and to complete those development works which have been left incomplete.
“First of all the federal government was not inviting me in their meetings and now they have come down to Karachi to sit across the table to discuss the city of Karachi,” he said and added the formation of a committee was discussed but no committee has been constituted yet. “Yes, committees between two political parties are formed for political reasons- we are a political party and our doors are always open for dialogue,” Mr. Shah said and added, “if someone wants to talk to me on the issues of Karachi I would definitely welcome him.”
The CM categorically said that he would follow the party [PPP] policies and our party’s policies to follow the constitution of Pakistan.” Mr. Shah said that the chairman DMA had met him earlier to discuss the cleanliness of stormwater drains. He added that out of 38 nallas the NDA was assigned to clean three nallas and the Sindh government cleaned 35 nallas and similar work of removal of sludge was still in progress. “When heavy rains wreak havoc in the city, the prime minister moved the NDMA to Karachi which is a good move,” he said and added the NDMA was a federal organization and its job was to help the provincial governments at the time of disasters and natural calamities.
Murad Ali Shah said that the Mayor of Karachi himself said that the KMC and the Sindh government were jointly working to clean 38 nallas. When the NDMA witnessed the on-going work plan of the provincial government they also endorsed the provincial government to complete its cleanliness job. “The matter was taken up in the supreme court of Pakistan which assigned the task of the cleanliness of nallas to NDMA,” he said.
The devastation of rains, Murad Ali Shah said that it was not the first time the heavy downpour had submerged some parts of the city. He showed an old newspaper cutting of 1954 in which a vehicle was shown inundated in rainwater on a street of Karachi. “Traditionally heavy rain has always been inundating various parts of Karachi but after 2008 the provincial government had taken numerous measures to dispose of rainwater within few hours of it happening,” he said.
The CM said that memory of our people was a very week – “I am reminding you that in 2007 it had rained around 200 mm which had claimed 50 lives,” he said and showed photographs on the screen of those days when almost the whole city was inundated and boats were sailing in low lying areas like Bath Island and other. He said the situation in the city was better considerably “but the solution of the situation lies in the removal of encroachments that emerged along the nallas,” he said and again reminded that these encroachments had not occurred during PPP tenure, but sorry to say, nobody was raising finger against them.
Murad Ali Shah said that where his government has made an intervention in the shape of reconstruction of roads and stormwater drains, and constructed underpasses and flyovers, rainwater disposed of within three to four hours and flow of traffic resumed within a few hours. He said that construction has emerged in Nazimabad [Green Line] against which the letters of the DMC central were on the record but the concerned quarters put deaf ear towards them.
The chief minister reminded those who were in constant denial of PPP performance that he reconstructed Jahangir Park, made Shahrah-e-Faisal a four-lane track where rainwater did not stop. Similarly, he said no water accumulated in the underpasses of Shaheed-e-Millat and Submarine Chowrangi. “We have initiated 38 major development schemes and most of them have been completed,” he said. He said that during the heavy rain of July 27, he himself had visited the city. “Lyari is the most congested area and is situated in the depression even then it did not submerge because we have reconstructed its roads and drainage system.
Mr. Shah said that he even constructed roads in those areas which were located in the cantonment areas such as Cantt Station road, flyover at Sunset Chorangi. “We have invested Rs40 billion in the city which was not enough and now more investment on the uplift of the city was being made through donor agencies,” he said and added that work on Malir Express would be started within the next four months and would be completed within three years. The CM said that the provincial government was developing 22 neighborhood spaces for recreation of the people of the city, of the first one in the downtown Saddar have been inaugurated by Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
“I am sorry to say nobody was ready to appreciate or highlight the development works we have done but everyone was accusing the Sindh government because they are rejected people,” he said. Murad Ali Shah said that he was asking the federal government to own Karachi because its people have elected their members but instead of supporting the ownership some of their members have been talking about fragmentation of Sindh.
“We, federal and the provincial, are governments and we would work together because the governance system is interlinked,” he said and added the FBR has failed to achieve its revenue recovery targets and now they were seeking help from Sindh governments to achieve their targets. He said that the federal government had said that they would give Rs245 billion to Sindh but they didn’t release and this was one of the reasons that various uplift schemes suffered. “I am always available to meet with the prime minister for the betterment and development of Karachi and I am sorry whenever we meet the meetings are given a different color, the color of hatred and the color of breaking Sindh,” he deplored.
Murad Ali Shah criticizing the federal government questioned the increasing price of sugar and atta. “When commission on sugar was constituted, the price of sugar was Rs55 kilo and after the commission report the price reached to Rs100 per kilo,” he said and similarly wheat disappeared from the market for which the federal government had adopted a mysterious silence. Whenever anybody asks them about the increasing prices of sugar, atta other items they passed on the buck to the Sindh government, he said.
The chief minister brushed aside the impression that he was under pressure. “Murad Ali Shah is not a person who could be pressurized,” he said categorically. To a question, Murad Ali Shah said that he would try to hold local bodies elections at the earliest. “Everyone knows that on August 22, 2016, a notorious speech was delivered and things had become quite critical but even then we had held local bodies elections,” he recalled.
Replying to a question, Mr. Shah said that his and Attorney General of Pakistan had talked on the telephone on an issue but it was not the issue of his statement he had given in the supreme court of Pakistan. The chief minister, to another question, said that the directives, the supreme court has given would be implemented by giving them legal cover.
