Governor-led Karachi committee unconstitutional, says Wahab

The Sindh chief minister’s adviser on law said on Saturday that the constitution of the Karachi Transformation Committee (KTC) by the prime minister was an unconstitutional step.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab told a news conference that according to the constitution, all the executive matters of a province are to be looked after by the provincial government alone.

The adviser said that no matter how many committees the PM forms, all these committees should be headed by the CM of the province and not the governor.

Wahab said that according to the constitution, the chief executive of a province is the chief minister and not the governor. He claimed that CM Syed Murad Ali Shah was not invited to any of the events attended by PM Imran Khan during his latest visit to the province.

The adviser supposed that the CM was not invited to any of the events because he could have raised the issues of outstanding dues, supremacy of the constitution, the National Finance Commission Award, and gas and electricity rights.

Wahab said that only the people associated with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had attended the event of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at Bagh Ibne Qasim. He said that the Sindh government had not only announced the Karachi package but also implemented it in letter and spirit.

The renovation of the Cantonment Railway Station and the roads around it, the revamping of Sharea Faisal, the construction of its underpasses and overhead bridges, and the revamping of University Road and Tariq Road are few of the examples of development works carried out under the package, he added.

The adviser said that the CM had demanded 650mgd for Karachi in the meeting of the Council of Common Interests but to no avail, even when the federal minister for water and power admitted on the floor of the National Assembly that Sindh’s water share was being stolen.

Wahab said that PM Khan should have mercy on the nation and stop taking U-turns every day, adding that it was high time that the premier stop deviating from the promises he had made during his campaign for the 2018 general elections.

He said that a promise was made to build five million homes, but not even 50 had been built so far. Similarly, he added, a promise was made to provide jobs to millions, but after the passage of eight months, not a single person had been awarded a government job. The adviser said that the structure of the Green Line bus project in Karachi was also in the doldrums, adding that seven months had passed since the PM had promised that the scheme would the completed.

He asked what the people of Pakistan have been given during the past eight months of the PTI’s rule except price hike of every single utility.

He said that the premier had once again fooled the people of Sindh through glorified dreams, adding that the same was done by the provincial governor when he had made promises to the people of Tharparkar.

Wahab said that the people of Tharparkar were also asking where PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi had gone after contesting the elections from there, adding that the people of Pakistan had their only hope in the form of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The adviser explained that the recent train march of PPP chief was meant to inform the people of Sindh about how the federal government was not giving them their due rights.

It was not done to seek cheap publicity as being done by most of the federal cabinet ministers, he said.

He also said that people in huge numbers came to welcome and listen to the PPP chairman wherever he stopped during his train march.

Had the party chief been provided appropriate security, more people would have welcomed him in Punjab, added Wahab.