PPP willing to reform local govt law, says Ghani

If Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar believes that there are flaws in the current laws related to the local government, he should submit his concerns to the Sindh government in writing as the government was ready to reform the laws.

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said this on Sunday as he spoke with The News.

Ghani maintained that though Akhtar had complained many times about problems in the local government laws, he had not submitted his complaints in black and white to the Sindh government, which the chief minister told him to do so on multiple occasions.

He said the provincial government was willing to address issues in the local government system before the local government elections.

The information minister maintained that the provincial government was cooperating with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to all possible extent because it wanted the city to flourish.

He said the offer made by Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) was still intact. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had caused economic crisis in the country and the MQM-P should not carry the burden of the poor performance of the PTI by continuing its alliance with it in the federal government.

He said if the MQM-P accepted Bilawal’s offer and joined the Sindh government, they would get more ministries in Sindh than what they want in the Centre.

Ghani added that the MQM-P claimed that Karachi belonged to it so it should consider joining the Sindh government for the sake of the city.

Commenting on the past coalitions of the PPP and the MQM that did not result fruitful, the information minister said mistakes made in the past could be rectified. He remarked that the MQM-P needed to dissociate itself from the PTI that had caused crisis in the whole country.

He also mentioned to the CNG issue in Karachi, due to which people were facing trouble to commute and industries were shutting down.

According to a report of the Bureau of Statistics, during the last one-and-a-half year, the prices of eatables had risen by 14.1 per cent, Ghani said, adding that the MQM-P should look at this performance of the PTI.

He added that when the people were in misery, the PTI legislators were demanding a 400 per cent increase in their salaries, which was deplorable.

CM to meet railway minister today

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah is scheduled to meet with Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad today (on Monday) to discuss the issues related to the Karachi Circular Railway’s (KCR) lands.

Sources told The News that the federal government had decided to hand over the railway lands to the Sindh government.

Sources said a vast land of the railway had been illegally occupied. Officials in the CM House said the land was being vacated in compliance with the apex court.

"Around 3.14 acres of land out of 12 acres land has so far been retrieved in the initial phase of the drive,” an official told The News, adding that illegal constructions built on the rest of the land would be removed soon.

The official said the Supreme Court on May 9 had directed the Railways, the city administration and the Sindh government to get the KCR land freed from illegal constructions in 15 days. In compliance with the top court orders, an operation was conducted on May 15 last year.

"In the initial phase of the operation, our focus is to clear the right of way of the KCR and hand it over to the provincial government,” the official said.