‘PPP never avoids process of accountability’

KARACHI: Members of the Sindh cabinet have said the Pakistan People’s Party has never avoided the process of accountability. The recent reference against the Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah is meant to threaten and pressurise the PPP besides damaging the credibility of the party’s Sindh government.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, the Sindh cabinet members said they got to know about the filing of the fresh accountability reference against the Sindh chief minister through the media only. If it was true, then all the facts related to the reported case would be presented before the court.

They said the Sindh government had established the Nooriabad Power Plant (named in the reported reference) under the public-private partnership arrangement at the cost of Rs15.2 billion.

The energy project’s company has so far earned Rs1.3 billion profit since January, 2018. He said that such details of the Nooriabad power project were available on the website of K-Electric.

They said the fresh accountability was nothing and based on mala fide intentions, adding the Sindh CM would appear before the court if he was summoned in relation to the new reference. They said the NAB had been established to prevent corruption in the country but all this was being done to damage the reputation of the Sindh government.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Law and Environment Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that they had not yet received any written intimation about the filing of the reference against the Sindh CM. He said the Sindh government of PPP despite all these difficulties would continue to serve the masses without getting influenced or pressurised.

Barrister Wahab, who also acts as the spokesman for the Sindh government, said that as a matter of principle, the affairs of the provincial government didn’t come under the domain of NAB but even then, the authority of the accountability watchdog was being accepted as they believed in the rule of law. He said the Nooriabad power plant since its inception had been supplying 100 megawatts electricity to Karachi on the least expensive rates. He said that Nooriabad Power Plant had been supplying 2,315 GWh electricity to Karachi every month since January, 2018.

He said the Sindh government had established its own transmission and dispatch company at the cost of Rs1.9 billion after the National Transmission and Dispatch Company had declined to supply electricity from the Nooriabad power plant to Karachi. He said the Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company had not just paid back Rs270 million loan but also earned profit of Rs120 million.

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the PPP had won the recently held by-election in Umerkot with a wide margin of votes as the hard work by the Sindh CM had a major role in the electoral success of the People's Party.

He said they condemned the filing of the reference against the Sindh CM by the NAB. He claimed the NAB’s reference didn’t contain any evidence to prove the corruption allegations. He said that such tactics were based on the nexus between the NAB and PTI’s government.