Sindh uplift through Centre-owned firm discriminatory: Nasir

KARACHI: 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.