Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah says he has not allotted land

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the constitutions of Pakistan gives land allotment powers to a chief minister but “I have not allotted even an inch of land to anybody ever since I have taken over as a chief executive of the province.”

This he said while talking to media at Ocean Mall where he inaugurated a three-day 6th ‘Sartyoon Sang Crafts’ exhibition organized by Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in collaboration with Sindh government.

Shah said, constitutionally a chief minister is empowered to allot land but he has not allotted land to any person or organization ever since he has taken over as chief executive of the province in 2016.

To a question, he said that he had not received any National Accountability Bureau (NAB) notice for his appearance on Friday. “I don’t know how some media men aired this news,” he asked and urged mediamen to verify news before making it on air or printing it the papers.

Replying to a question, he said that he won’t discuss JIT report because the Supreme Court of Pakistan has forbidden to discuss it in media, otherwise he had vast and credible material to respond each and every clause relating to him.

To another question, the chief minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had vowed to provide buses for BRT Green Line project when he had visited Karachi to pay respect to father of nation and had presided over a meeting on development projects.

“The minutes of the meeting are available and anybody can read them,” he said and added otherwise, the provincial government was ready to procure buses for Green Line project. He added that the Sindh Governor might have not read the minutes of the prime minister’s meeting, otherwise he had not given such a statement.

“I am surprised that after three months of the prime minister’s meeting and the decision the Sindh Governor says that the provincial government has to procure buses,” he said.

Talking about relationship between the federal and the provincial governments, Murad Ali Shah said “the constitution of Pakistan determines the working perimeters between the center and provinces and if both, center and provincial governments will work within their constitutional limits there will be no problem,” he said and added the functions of the Governor were also very clear in the constitution and “he [Governor] knows very well,” he said and went on saying that whenever prime minister has visited Karachi he has received him and attended his meeting where he was invited.

“We are political people and would never disgrace the highest constitutional offices,” he said.