Alvi, Murad discuss ways to improve Sindh-Centre working relationship

KARACHI: The federal government has once again given the assurance that it will complete its under-construction development projects in Sindh at the earliest.

The assurance to this effect came as Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah held a one-on-one meeting with President Dr Arif Alvi at the Governor House on Sunday.

The meeting took into consideration the working relationship between the Sindh government and the federation and the proposed ways to further improve it.

The meeting between the two top authorities discussed a mechanism to ensure a sufficient supply of river water to Sindh for irrigation and human consumption.

The two also discussed progress on the under-construction federally-funded development projects in Karachi, and reiterated the resolve of the government to complete at the earliest the mass transit system for the provision of a modern and speedy public transportation facility in Karachi.

The handout issued on the occasion said that President Alvi would soon again meet the CM to conduct a fresh review of the development projects being carried out in Sindh with the assistance of the federal government and consider other lingering issues between the centre and the province.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of Shah’s speech in the Sindh Assembly on Friday in which he had warned that the transfer of funds from the centre to his government during the current financial year had dropped to unprecedented levels, which had never happened earlier in the history.

The CM had informed the Sindh Assembly that the historic decline in the due fund transfer as part of the federal divisible pool during the current financial year had forced him to adopt certain stringent measures regarding governance in the province. He had said that the development plans of his government in Sindh during the current financial year would be in serious jeopardy owing to the release of less money from the centre to his government.