Sindh’s local government minister has said that the provincial government and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will not deal with any committee formed by the federal government that Federal Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem is a part of because of his “hostile” plans regarding Karachi.
Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said this on Saturday while talking to the media after he launched the work to reconstruct the roads around the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health.
Replying to a question as to why Prime Minister Imran Khan postponed his planned visit to the city on Saturday to review its development, Shah said he strongly suspected that the premier had put off his planned visit after he noticed the commotion that resulted because of the people he had appointed for the Karachi committee.
He expressed gratitude to chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, the present Pir Pagara, for unequivocally opposing the intentions of the federal law minister to impose Article 149 on Karachi, as he had advised Naseem to desist from implementing any such plan that would cause unrest in the city.
He said the suggestion of the federal law minister for Karachi had shown that the people associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had once more started propagating their particular mindset against the city.
Responding to a query regarding the suggestion of certain quarters that once more Karachi be accorded the status of the federal capital, he said that all the provincial government wants is Karachi to remain the capital of the province of Sindh.
He said that up to 65 per cent of the total development budget of the local government department was spent on the development of Karachi.
The LG minister said that roads around the three major public hospitals of the city fell within the jurisdiction of the cantonment board, but the provincial government would reconstruct them in any case in view of the serious hardships being faced by the patients and visitors to these health facilities.
He said that it was his clear intention that the Sindh government works with the relevant municipal agencies of the city, including the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the district municipal corporations (DMCs), for the development and other uplift works in the city.
He also said that irrespective of the views of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar regarding the Sindh government, the latter had all the best intentions to work with the mayor for the development of the city.
The LG minister said that in accordance with the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the provincial government had commenced the reconstruction of the major roads of the city that had been ruined due to sewage and drainage issues in the aftermath of the heavy monsoon rains.
He said that the Sindh government had commenced work on the roads around the three major hospitals of the city after resolving the drainage and sewage overflow issues in the area.
He added that the provincial government would reconstruct the major roads of the city even if they fell in the jurisdiction of the KMC or the DMCs.