Bilawal should explain spending of Rs1,900b: Farrukh

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on massive corruption in Sindh, where, he said, people were deprived of basic amenities including health, education and clean drinking water Monday lashed out at Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for bad governance.In a statement, he said the PPP had completely failed to fulfil the mandate given by the people of Sindh in the last general elections, suggesting ‘corruption’ as an electoral symbol for the party which was only expert in misappropriation of public funds. The minister said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari should explain as to where he had spent Rs1,900 billion given to the province by the federation under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. He said Sindh was not only marred by corruption but also incompetency as the PPP-led government had even failed to utilise 59 percent of the development budget during the ongoing financial year. It also missed its current year’s revenue target by collecting less than 53 percent of taxes, he added.

Farrukh said the education sector in Sindh also became victim of sheer negligence as 50 percent of the total 12.5 million children were still out of the school. The socio-economic condition of people of Thar was even worse than in other areas as they were deprived of basic amenities including health and clean drinking water.

He said the province would be grappling with deadly diseases like stunting growth and HIV/AIDS in future due to incompetence and bad governance of the Sindh government. The minister asked Bilawal as to when he would apologise to the people of Sindh for the negligence and carelessness of the Sindh government. “How far the investigation into wheat theft has reached? Did any rat confess to the crime or the case was disposed of,” he questioned, adding the rats of Sindh, who had eaten wheat worth Rs 14 billion, were far ahead of Bilawal in committing corruption.

He said all the mega projects in Sindh such as Nai Gaj Dam, Rainee Canal, Sindh Barrage, Multan-Sukkur Motorway, Green Line, K-4 were carried out by the Centre despite the province was ruled by the PPP.

The minister said the country was on track of progress and development due to Prime Minister Imran Khan's prudent policies and decisions. He termed Bilawal the so-called champion of democracy and said the PPP chairman should explain as to how much representation was given to the standing committees including Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Sindh.

It was agreed in the Charter of Democracy, signed by Benazir Bhutto and the fugitive Nawaz Sharif, that the chairmanship of PAC would be given to the opposition, he said, adding there was no check on the Sindh government due to non-representation of opposition in the PAC.