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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Centre not taking Sindh on board on budgetary proposals’

By Our Correspondent
April 16, 2021

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has complained that instead of the elected political leadership of Sindh, the provincial bureaucracy is often invited to virtual meetings held by the federal government to discuss affairs related to the national development budget.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the information minister maintained that Sindh was always ignored in the federal development plan. He added that the Sindh government was not taken on board on federal budgetary proposals.

“We are always willing to extend cooperation for the sake of development and bringing improvement in the lives of the people of Sindh but the federal government doesn’t contact us in this regard.”

He, however, welcomed the move of the federal government to announce a development package for Sindh, saying that the Sindh government would extend fullest cooperation to implement the package meant to uplift the people of the province.

He explained that so far the Sindh government had not been taken on board regarding the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the province. “Even yesterday, the PM did mention that up to 40 per cent population of Karachi lives in shanty settlements but the fact is that the prime minister merely issues statements for people of the city,” said Shah.

He said the mandatory announcement of the new National Finance Commission’s (NFC) award had been pending since 2015. The announcement of the new NFC award would enable the Sindh government of PPP to carry out more development works in Karachi, he added.

The information minister claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party was the only political party protesting against the issue of the understated population of the province in the last census.

To a question, he said at present six to seven water supply hydrants were operational in Karachi as the Sindh government had to supply water to such areas of the city where there was no regular line network for the purpose. He said the Sindh government had been doing its best to ensure just distribution of potable water in the city.