Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, CM Murad Ali Shah discuss development projects

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah met the province’s governor, Imran Ismail, at the Governor House in Karachi on Thursday, according to a statement released by the Governor House.

The one-liner statement read that the chief executive and the governor in their meeting discussed ongoing development projects in the province. The Governor House did not issue a formal handout or press release to share the details of the meeting with the media.

The meeting came a day after federal ministers Asad Umar and Ali Zaidi had dashed to the Sindh governor along with lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) belonging to Karachi.

They held a joint news conference at the Governor House to brief the media on the ongoing efforts of the PTI’s federal government to carry out mega development schemes in the city, and the fast-track funds being released to complete the ongoing Green Line project.

Before the news conference, the federal ministers and the governor had attended two top-level meetings of the federally constituted Karachi Transformation Committee (KTC) and the Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Limited to review the progress of the Centre-funded development projects under way in Karachi. The KTC meeting was also attended by Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P). Umar, the federal minister for planning & development, also responded to the queries of the journalists at the news conference regarding the meeting.

Umar said it was wrong to assume that the meetings at the Governor House were convened to appease the MQM-P, the federal administration’s coalition partner, following the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief’s statement urging the Muttahida to break its alliance with the PTI and ally with the PPP in Sindh.

The federal minister said that the schedule of the meetings at the Governor House had been finalised before the recent statement of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

UAE consul general

The Sindh governor on Thursday also met Consul General of the United Arab Emirates in Karachi Dr Salem Ali Al Khaddeim Al Dhanhani.

The meeting conducted a detailed review of the bilateral trade, business and investment relations, with both officials reiterating that the ties between the two countries had always been friendly and spanned several decades. Ismail also appreciated Al Dhanhani’s role in promoting fraternal ties between the two Islamic countries.