Form joint committee to find cure for coronavirus-hit economy, Naqvi tells CM Sindh

Sindh Assembly opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi on Sunday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, asking him to form a joint committee for the future planning in view of the coronavirus pandemic that has badly hit the province's economy.

In the letter, Naqvi said “the province’s GDP, which was $1,400 in 2010, is three times higher from the rest of the nation and it is above the national average from 1.33 per cent”.

“According to estimates, Sindh's contribution to Pakistan's GDP has been between 30 and 32.7 per cent. Its share in the service sector has been from 21 to 27.8 per cent and from 21.4 to 27.7 per cent in the agriculture sector. In terms of performance, its best sector is the manufacturing sector, where its share ranged from 36.7 per cent to 46.5 per cent,” the letter read.

“Sindh is a major economic hub of Pakistan, whereas most of the areas of the province are those who do not pay taxes, as institutions are not collecting taxes from those areas due to their non-registration till yet,” wrote Naqvi, who is also a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's central leader.

“We need to plan how we can promote more employment opportunities to create more jobs for the people so that the economy could get better,” said the leader of the opposition in Sindh.

“We need to promote the private sector and spend most of the public money in areas where more employment opportunities could be created. In the past twelve years, we have seen very few successful projects and implementation by the Sindh government,” said Naqvi.

“We like and support Murad Ali Shah but we would like to see a bold, decisive, committed and honest chief minister who has zero tolerance for corruption and loyalty,” he said.

He assured the CM for their support and said that his party would support every positive initiative but had zero-tolerance policy for corrupt practices which was “the practice of Sindh government in past”.

“We are also not in a position to support demands such as reducing interest rates by 1,200 points in one shot,” he maintained. “You want your people to work hard and live a decent life, it is our responsibility to create employment opportunities for the citizens so that by achieving dreams they will bring Sindh and Pakistan on the path of development and prosperity,” the letter said. PTI lawmaker Haleem Adil Sheikh also wrote a letter to the CM Sindh last week.