‘Development of Sindh via Centre-owned firm discriminatory’

Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said on Saturday that the federal government has proved its anti-Sindh attitude by opting to carry out development works in the province through a Centre-owned company.

The Sindh information and local government minister made this remark while addressing a news conference at the provincial assembly, along with Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani.

Shah lamented that Sindh is being treated in a discriminatory manner because all the development projects in the new federal budget will be completed through a federally owned company.

There is no such arrangement in the case of other provinces, he pointed out. “Those who accuse us of using the ‘Sindh card’ have themselves been busy committing the economic murder of the province.”

He said that conspiracies against Sindh continue unabated in the forms of the National Finance Commission Award and curtailed electricity, gas and water supply to the province.

He warned that the Sindh government will not sit idle because grave injustices have been committed against the province in the last national population census.

He claimed that the elected representatives of Sindh who are part of the federal cabinet have made compromises on the issue of census instead of protecting the rights of the people of the province.

The minister said the Centre has not honoured its promise to verify the results of the population count in five per cent census blocks in the country. He stressed that the federal government’s decision on the census issue goes against Sindh.

He said the gulf between the federation and the provinces has been widening due to the unreasonable conduct of the Centre. He predicted that the federal government will shortly unveil a mini-budget after presenting the regular annual budget for the country.

Shah lamented that the new federal budget will not provide relief to the masses. He said that the mere 10 per cent increase in the salaries of government employees is enough to expose the truth behind the Centre’s claims about the increase in the country’s revenue generation and foreign exchange reserves.

Ghani said on the occasion that the stance of the Pakistan Peoples Party is very much clear on the census controversy: it wants a joint session of the parliament to be convened to settle this issue in accordance with the constitution.

He lamented that the federal cabinet members who have been elected by Sindh’s people have never spoken in the National Assembly on the issue of the curtailment of gas and electric supply to the province.

He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) whose leaders consider themselves true representatives of Karachi have also done nothing on the issue of census, and instead preferred to remain a part of the federal cabinet.

He accused the MQM of betraying the people of Sindh and trampling upon their rights in order to enjoy the privileges available to a coalition partner of the federal government.