Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh leaders on Wednesday accused the previous regimes of overstaffing the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on the basis of political nepotism, and said the national flag-carrier was still carrying the unnecessary burden of thousands of surplus staffers recruited in the Pakistan Peoples Party’s governments.
Addressing a press conference at a private university campus, Firdous Shamim Naqvi, opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, along with Haleem Adil Sheikh, the PTI’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, and Hunaid Lakhani, Baitul Mal Sindh president, Naqvi said two major airplane crashes were witnessed in the rule of the PPP government.
“The previous rulers had devastated the PIA by recruiting more than 4,500 surplus staff,” he said. “When the PPP’s rule began, the loss of the PIA was Rs35 billion, and during the PML-N’s government, the accumulated loss of the PIA was Rs500 billion."
He said experts, including a foreign team of Airbus from France, had been probing the causes of the PIA plane crash that occurred last week. “There is not a single cold storage for dead bodies in any provincial government-run hospital where 200 dead bodies could be kept at one time.”
Naqvi said there were not sufficient ventilator operators in the megacity. “We will expose massive corruption in all departments of the Sindh government."
He clarified that PPP provincial president Nisar Khuhro presented a recent statement of Sindh Governor Imran Ismail out of context. “We had demanded implementing Article 149.”
The opposition leader said jobs were given through the Sindh Public Service Commission on the basis of fake domiciles. He said this was injustice to Karachi’s residents. “I would like to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan for how long he will be giving one more chance to the Sindh government.”
Sheikh said that the PTI was not against the 18th amendment. “But we want its proper implementation because nobody knows where the funds granted under the 18th amendment go."
He said these corrupt people devoured Rs15,000 billion during the last 12 years in the name of the 18th amendment.
Vowing to organise the PTI at the grassroots level in Sindh, Sheikh said the PTI would continue to expose the "corrupt PPP government" in the province.
Criticising the Sindh government for sending provincial minister Saeed Ghani to talk on every matter, he said these days Ghani had become an aviation expert. “We have seen that the PPP government didn’t do anything for the injured devotees of the 2017 suicide bombing at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine in Sehwan,” he said.
“When we reached the plane crash site, only police, Rangers, army and Edhi volunteers were present there. There was not a single ambulance of the Sindh government at the scene." He said the report of this incident would be made public soon. He said the PPP should explain its performance about the Bhoja and Airblue plane crashes that happened during their regime.
The PTI leader said that there was no disaster management department official of Sindh government at the site of the plane crash. “Our whole team reached there timely. The chief minister later came for just photo sessions”.
He said PTI leaders were in contact with the PIA and the insurance company and would ensure that the bereaved families were paid Rs5 million more. Shiekh asked why no inquiry committee was yet to be formed against the alleged corruption of Faryal Talpur, a central PPP leader. “A large number of people have died due to rabid dog-bites and drinking poisonous wine in Sindh."
Accusing provincial minister Mukesh Kumar Chawala of promoting the business of liquor shops in the province, Shiekh criticised the Sindh government for allowing liquor shops to reopen and making them virtually "coronavirus-free zones".
“The Sindh government is closing down mosques and Imambargahs but opening the wine shops." Lakhani said that Sindh was the only province of Pakistan where the education graph was coming down. “Due to poor performance of the Sindh government, Pakistan stands in the rank of countries like Somalia."
He said the ministers of the Sindh government themselves admitted that there were more than 0.1million ghost teachers in Sindh. He advised the government to hold one press conference about its own system, including recruitments, promotions, and admissions. He said these people made false claims of Roti, Kapra and Makan.