Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Sheikh on Wednesday criticised the federal government for water shortage in the province.
Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building, he said the entire city of Karachi has been facing a severe water crisis and the federal government was completely silent over it.
He said that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) always stoked ethnic bias and its politics of prejudice had been rejected by the people as the people of Sindh lived with love, peace and brotherhood.
He alleged that the federal government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was constantly abusing Sindh and they would continue to voice concerns against such injustices at every forum.
Sheikh said that people were being evicted from the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and other institutions. He pointed out that no one was ready to hear the plight of such employees. He added that the Sindh government would resist such efforts.
The energy minister remarked that the approval of increase in the prices of life-saving drugs was based on anti-people sentiment as the sharp rise in the prices of medicines and food had made the people's lives miserable. The federal government and its allies did not realise the plight of the people, he maintained.
He said that due to incompetence of the federal government in the energy sector, several projects of solar and coal energy in Sindh had been delayed. The federal government, he said, was taking U-turns again and again.
Sheikh said that after the budget, prices of petroleum were increased several times and now petrol and dollar prices had reached at the highest level in the history. He added that Sindh was an important province in terms of available solar energy and wind power but the PTI government was planning against such power sources, causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
The provincial minister was of the view that the federal government should stop making hostile decisions against Sindh. The citizens of Sindh were dissatisfied with the policies of the federal government, he said, adding that there were daily 18 to 20 hours of power cuts in the province.
Many villages in Sindh were without electricity for weeks, and the performance of K-Electric, Hesco and Sepco had been very poor. “These federally run companies do not even repair broken wires and transformers, which has made people's lives miserable,” he stressed. Sheikh said that not a single promise of the prime minister regarding Sindh had been fulfilled and the people of Sindh were suffering the consequences.