Focus on city’s development to continue in PPP’s upcoming govt in Sindh: Nasir

Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former Sindh information minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said his party’s upcoming government in the province will continue implementing its agenda of development and progress in Karachi irrespective of the recent election results in the city.

Talking to journalists at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, he said Karachi had been and would remain a focus of the party’s next government for carrying out development works. “The PPP’s last provincial government initiated several development projects in Karachi and the party’s new government in the province will complete whatever projects were left incomplete in the previous tenure,” he said.

The MPA-elect said the PPP’s new government would continue to develop Karachi as per the vision and programme of the party’s chairman. Shah, who is most likely to return to the new cabinet to be formed in Sindh, said that contrary to the generally prevailing notion, the PPP performed very well in the general elections in the city as the tally of the seats it had won this time had almost doubled as compared to the poll results the party had achieved in Karachi in the 2013 general elections.

About the general elections lost by the PPP in its stronghold, Lyari, he said his party had serious reservations over the conduct of polls in Lyari where the election results were not just surprising but also beyond the comprehension of the common man. “It has never seen before in any previous election that a National Assembly seat in a locality is won by one party while the two provincial assembly seats under it have been won by entirely different parties.”

Shah said the PPP was credited with restoring peace in Lyari, but this time elements known to have a criminal record and background had been campaigning against the party in the area.

To a question whether the PPP was ready to face a relatively strong opposition in the Sindh Assembly with the victory of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Karachi, he said that as per the spirit of democratic norms, his party would fully welcome and get engaged with whatever opposition emerged in the provincial legislature. Previously, the PPP had faced a much stronger opposition, he said.

He hoped that with the victory of the PTI in urban parts of Sindh, a good and well-educated opposition would emerge in the assembly and was expected to do constructive criticism of the conduct of the government.

He added that his party had been thoroughly investigating to determine the extent of irregularities and rigging committed during the polls. He said the outcome of the probe would be shared with the media.

The MPA-elect was of the viewpoint that the chief election commissioner should step down as almost all political parties which contested the July 25 general elections had serious reservations over how they were conducted.