Sindh chief minister, not prime minister,should resign, says GDA lawmaker

Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) vocal MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi has demanded of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to step down, saying that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) performance in the government of Sindh, which it has been ruling for 12 years, is ‘zero’.

Talking to The News on Sunday, she condemned the murder of sitting PPP MPA Shahnaz Ansari in interior Sindh and said it was alarming that the PPP legislator was shot dead when her party was ruling in the province.

The GDA MPA deplored the fact that the Sindh government did not provide security to the PPP MPA despite knowing that she had been facing threats.

Nusrat censured the provincial government for neglecting law and order, which according to her was evident from the recent controversy over the transfer of the Sindh inspector general of police (IGP). She said instead of letting the IGP work, the local government minister was asking him to go on leave. “Let the IGP work,” she asserted.

The government had miserably failed to protect common citizens, she remarked and added that the poor class had not got any relief from the PPP. She said the Sindh government had created floor crisis in the province and blamed Sindh Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu for that.

Rabies cases

The GDA MPA lambasted the Sindh government for failing to control stray dogs in the city due to which many people had died of rabies.

She said even in Sehwan, the home constituency of the incumbent CM, a dog bite case had been reported a day earlier. A minor boy died as there was no vaccine for rabies available, she maintained, adding that when someone could not take care of their home constituency, they had not right to occupy the post of the CM.

So far 47 dog bite cases had been reported in Karachi and some victims died because anti-rabies vaccine was not available in hospitals, Nusrat said.

Education

She alleged that the education department in Sindh was particularly affected by corruption, due to which standard of education had been in decline.

She lamented that in spite of a heavy budget for education, schools in Sindh were without classrooms and toilets. She said many girls in Sindh did not go to school just because of the reason that schools had no washrooms.

The GDA MPA was of the view that due to such poor infrastructure, parents were reluctant to send their daughters to school. She also pointed out frequent transfers of teachers in public schools which caused interruptions in curricular activities and prompted students to not attend classes there.

She said besides the education department, other departments had also been marred by corruption. She accused the PPP government of destroying the agriculture and irrigation departments of the province.

BISP

Nusrat claimed that the PPP did not even spare the Benazir Income Support Programme and embezzled money for the poor. She said people of the Sindh government were involved in the plunder of funds which should have been provided to the poor.

She said the greatest corruption by the Sindh government officials was committed by providing their children scholarships from the endowment fund.

According to her, in such a scenario PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s demand of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation was unjustified and instead the one who needed to resign was the Sindh CM.