Sindh govt facing shortage of funds due to failure to collect tax: Haleem

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh leaders on Sunday said the provincial government over the years had failed to meet the targets of property tax collection and instead of improving its performance, it was shifting the blame for lack of funds to the federal government.

The PTI leaders also alleged that the Sindh government had increased the budgetary allocation of the Chief Minister House just for merrymaking and dance parties. “The Sindh government, instead of collecting the property taxes, was crying foul that they were not getting funds from the federal government,” said Haleem Adil Sheikh, the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, as he addressed a press conference in the Sindh Assembly.

He remarked that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government in Sindh had long ago lost all the moral justification to stay in power after its corrupt practices and utter failure to deliver to the people of the province were utterly exposed.

Sheikh, who is also the PTI central vice president, said Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and its very foundations were laid on the Two Nation Theory. He added that Prime Minister Imran Khan was leading the country from the front and had put the country back on the path of progress and prosperity.

Sheikh and other PTI leaders at the press conference said the corrupt rulers of Sindh were focussing on increasing their bank balance and constructing palatial houses, instead of saving the lives of the victims of dog bites and malnourished kids of Thar.

The Sindh Assembly opposition leader claimed that officials of the Indus River System Authority were not involved in diverting the flows of water towards Punjab by depriving Sindh of its due share of irrigation water.

The PTI leaders requested media persons to visit waterways to witness how the water of the poor farmers was being stolen by cruel people belonging to the Sindh government.

Sheikh alleged that PPP MPA from Thatta Ali Hassan Zardari was actually calling the shots in water regulation and awarding of the contracts for desilting of canals. The PTI leader added that the PPP MPA had plundered funds meant for the overhauling of the waterworks in the province.

‘A biased government’

Meanwhile, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has finalised its strategy to make its protest rally on July 3 against the Sindh government successful as it directed all the workers to attend the power show.

The MQM-P organised a general workers’ convention on Saturday at a park near the party's headquarters where it announced to celebrate August as the month of independence and September as the month of migration.

Accusing the PPP’s government in Sindh of being biased and racist, MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said at the event that his party would serve the first notice to the Sindh government on July 3 through a mammoth rally.

The protest rally on July 3 has been planned to start at the Hassan Square roundabout and end at the Karachi Press Club.

Siddiqui said that the time of protests over water, electricity and gas had passed and it was now the time to make a concrete decision. “The MQM-P is not an emotional movement but an ideological movement,” he added.

He said that all tactics to eliminate the MQM-P had failed and differences among some leaders would not split the unity of the party and its workers. He was of the view that there were political parties in Pakistan today that would be wiped out if only a few people left them. “But the MQM-P has never acted as a fan club and that is the reason it is still operating,” he said.

“The country’s system could not be made functional without the MQM-P,” he asserted. Siddiqui also maintained that soon a new province would be created.

Abdul Waseem, MQM-P coordination committee member, said the Sindh government had a biased attitude towards Karachi. “The MQM-P wants the rights of the people in this city, not fighting and rioting,” he added. Other speakers said the Sindh government was encouraging discrimination and bias in the province against its urban population as part of a well-thought-out plan.