Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said his government stands fully committed to supporting cultural institutions like the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) in Karachi for countering the undesirable but rising trends of extremism, intolerance and violence in society.
He was speaking as chief guest at the convocation ceremony of Napa at the academy’s premises at the Hindu Gymkhana on Tuesday. Mentioning the sorrowful act of terrorism that had taken place a day earlier in a mosque in Peshawar, the CM said cultural institutions and artists had to play an important role to tackle such extremist tendencies among the youth in society.
He told the audience that whether it was the federal government or any provincial government, they were under the obligation to fully support institutions like Napa so that the youth shouldn’t show intolerance and stay away from extremist tendencies.
Shah said performing artists formed an important part of society and played their due role to promote the culture of their area. He opined that institutions like Napa had an important role to play to adopt positive and healthy creative activities. He said his government had been actively working to support and promote fine and performing arts and the people associated with these creative fields.
He mentioned that Sindh was the land of Sufi saints whose cultural heritage was as rich and valuable as that of any other region or civilisation the world over. He said that cultural events of various natures kept on taking place throughout the year in all places of Sindh from Karachi to Kashmore.
The CM advised Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah to present a cultural calendar at the time of the presentation of the next provincial budget to let prospective tourists and visitors coming to Sindh know about culture-related events to take place in a year.
He held out the assurance on behalf of his government to give full financial support to repair the damaged portions of the heritage building of the Hindu Gymkhana that was affected due to heavy monsoon rains last year.
He said the culture department would make sure that the damaged portions of the Hindu Gymkhana were repaired to restore the heritage building to its original form. The CM requested Napa President Emirates Zia Mohyeddin to reserve a seat for him as once he retired from politics he would get admission to the academy to learn about performing arts.
Talking to the media after presiding over the Napa convocation, Shah said the Pakistan Peoples Party had emerged as the single largest party in the local bodies’ elections in Karachi; therefore, it had the right to have its mayor in Karachi.
“Had the MQM not boycotted the elections, our opponents would not have taken the number of seats that they did and this they know very well.” To a question, the CM said that there been certain compulsions and that was why the Sindh government had wanted to delay the LG elections in Karachi; otherwise, the PPP would have taken many more seats than it had taken. “We had requested the MQM to avoid boycotting the elections, but their party decided to do so. As a result, their votes went to the Jamaat-e-Islami; otherwise, they were not in a position even to secure such a number of seats in Karachi.”
Shah said the ruling PPP had appointed its administrator (Murtaza Wahab) for the first time in the history of the city and what he delivered was no secret to any resident of Karachi. “Our party has the history of serving this city and its people and Inshallah we [PPP] will continue serving them as chief minister and mayor,” he said.
Talking about the rehabilitation of flood -affected people in Sindh, he said that he had convened a post-Geneva conference in which development projects would be proposed to donor agencies for getting the financial support they had pledged in Geneva.
The CM said that over two million houses had been damaged in Sindh due to floods. “We have conducted a survey of these houses, which was a gigantic task and now just after the conference, we would start the distribution of money to the homeless flood victims through well-reputed NGOs, which have been made partners in the housing project.
Replying to another question, Shah said that around 20,000 school buildings had been damaged by the heavy rains and floods in Sindh. “In such dangerous buildings students cannot be allowed to take classes,” he said.
Regarding a question about the Safe City project to be launched in Karachi, the CM said only the installation of surveillance cameras was not enough, and they had to strengthen the police for which the latest equipment and gadgets had been given to the police, apart from enhancing their salaries and other benefits.