Controlling inflation bigger challenge than holding polls, says Sharjeel

HYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon has termed inflation as the bigger challenge in the country than the elections and said it is important how the country will deal with it.

Addressing a press conference at the Rawal House in Hyderabad on Thursday, he said the PTI’s incompetence had no precedent in the country’s history, adding that PTI made promises to the IMF and backed out from them.

Memon said that in three and a half years’ government of the PTI the finance secretary and the governor of the State Bank were changed repeatedly. He said that when new taxes were to be imposed, the PTI government did not impose them because it had seen its departure.

He said the Sindh government was answerable to the people and it was doing its best to provide every possible relief to the people while the chief minister had directed not only the provincial food minister to expedite the process of wheat procurement but all concerned departments, including transport and agriculture, had also been directed to provide relief to the people.

The provincial information minister said the chief secretary and all the deputy commissioners had been directed to ensure price control. He said Imran Khan under a well-thought-out conspiracy was pushing the country towards chaos and now it had become clear that Khan was working on foreign agenda, for which funding from India and Israel had been confirmed to him some time ago.

He said the PTI government was not removed by a court, a military dictator or any other means, but through the constitution of Pakistan. “Imran Khan tries to sell a false narrative and spread chaos with the support of enemy countries,” he alleged.

He said Imran Khan’s slogan was “why you did not save me?” He added that Khan abused the judiciary and important institutions on social media. He said Khan was the test tube baby of the institution that was being criticised today.

“Imran Khan should read the verses of the Holy Quran once and then tell how he came into power,” he said.Memon said that the Election Commission had convicted Khan of money laundering and how it could be that Khan forgot to disclose 17 accounts with no record of funds and when the FIA took action he took stay. He said we did not go for stay in a single case, and ifKhan answered this, he would consider him an angel.

He said the PTI chief took stay in foreign funding and BRT cases and received kickbacks of seven billion rupees, and when the Peshawar High Court ordered NAB and the FIA, then Khan went to the Supreme Court to take a stay. “If Imran Khan was honest, then why did he take a stay?” he asked.

Memon said every script of Khan was imported, which reflected the nefarious designs of some countries. He warned that giving more concessions or pampering Khan would not be good for the country.

The information minister underlined the need for making the census process clean and transparent so that no political party and people would have any concerns about it. He said that the families of those who died in the floods were being given one million rupees each by the Sindh government, while the 2.2 million houses damaged in floods were being constructed by the Sindh government and for that funds were being given to affected people to build their houses themselves.

He said 9,000 tons of wheat had been imported and the Sindh government was not taking any benefit from it but giving a subsidy of billions of rupees to the people.