Those wishing division of Sindh disintegrated into fragments, says CM

KARACHI: The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, has said those who wished the division of Sindh in the past disintegrated into several fragments, and people wishing the same this time again would meet the same sorry fate.

Murad Ali Shah made these remarks in the Sindh Assembly on Monday while giving a policy statement regarding the inauguration of the first Thar coal-based power plant in Islamkot,

Tharparkar. In his remarks, the chief minister, without naming the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, was criticising the statement of its leaders in favour of division of Sindh. “Those talking about the division of Sindh have already disintegrated into several parts and let us see in how many more parts they would be fragmented as they speak about the division of our province,” he said. The opposition vociferously protested all along the time when the Sindh CM was making his policy statement.

Further chiding the MQM without naming the party, the Sindh CM said: “Our leader was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as we are not the ones who are used to changing their leadership. The whole world recognizes Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. We are not the ones like them to abandon our leader. Why don’t they speak anymore in favour of their leader like in the past,” said the Sindh CM.

Shah’s remarks stirred the MQM legislators who strongly agitated to his remarks. The CM also referred to the Article-149 of the Constitution saying it does not empower the Centre to interfere in the affairs of a province. He said the constitutional provision only empowers the Centre to direct the province if in case the authority of governance or legislation of the federal government, as envisaged in the Constitution, was being encroached upon by the provincial government.

Shah credited the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former president Asif Ali Zardari for completion of the Thar coal energy project. He said despite several difficulties and criticism, the PPP’s government took no U-turn and continued to develop the Thar coal project. He said the people of Thar have been made partners and beneficiaries of the project of Thar coal energy and such kind of development in Pakistan was unprecedented. He said each of the 1,228 families displaced due to the Thar coal power project would be given Rs100,000 annually as their share in the project. He said only phase one of the Thar project was completed and work on the phase-II has commenced. He said the NED University of Engineering and Technology would establish a campus in Thar whereas another full-fledged university would also be established there in collaboration with the Thar Foundation.

Earlier, amid an uproar in the house, the Sindh Assembly passed a resolution to condemn the recent statement of MQM Pakistan leader and Federal Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui regarding the division of Sindh.

The Sindh Women Development Minister, Syeda Shehla Raza, presented the resolution in the house, which was co-signed by a number of lawmakers. A noisy protest by the opposition legislators followedthe tabling of the resolution. The resolution condemned Federal Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui's statement about the "division of Sindh" as prejudicial and unpatriotic aimed to stirring "differences and hatred amongst the people."

Raza's resolution sought Siddiqui's apology for the statement. Speaking on her resolution, Sindh Minister Shehla Raza said the division of Sindh is tantamount to division of “our mother”, which is not acceptable. She said the people of Karachi could no more be fooled by such statements, which sows the seeds of division of the motherland. Shehla said there should not be any betrayal of the motherland, which provided shelter, food and honour to the people who had migrated from India. The minister said though the MQM remained coalition partners in the past several governments but it never sincerely pursued the welfare of the people of Karachi or the repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh. Shehla said those opposing the quota system in the province, had never moved a resolution in the assembly against it.

Interestingly, despite all the opposition uproar in the house at the time of presentation of the resolution, when the Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani put the resolution for voting, nobody opposed the passage of the resolution and it was passed unanimously by the house.

Another resolution was also passed by the house against Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement supporting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election campaign. The resolution was moved in the house by PPP’s MPA Nida Khuhro. Speaking on her resolution, Khuhro said Prime Minister Imran Khan had forgotten that his Indian counterpart had unleashed barbarism and deadly violence against the Kashmiris and Pakistanis. Demanding an apology from the PM, she said the PM's statement in favour of his Indian counterpart was sorrowful.

Earlier, the Sindh Assembly was informed that there are Hindu 690 temples in the province and no new temple was constructed. Sindh Minister for Minorities’ Affairs, Hari Ram Kishori Lal, was responding during the Question Hour. He said the Sindh government wanted to restore the historic Sadhu Bela Temple in Sukkur but could not do so because of non cooperative attitude of the Evacuee Property Trust Board. He said there are 42 temples in Hyderabad and the government wants to improve their condition. There are also eight Gurduwaras and 33 churches in Sindh, he said.

Responding to a call attention notice in the house, Sindh Education and Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah informed the house that majority of the privately run schools in the province are teaching Sindhi language to students, while the remaining schools would start doing so from July 01 this year.