Politics over Sindh

It has been clear since the PTI government came to power in the centre, and the PPP continued its rule in Sindh, that relations between the two parties were not good. They have not improved since then, with the PTI also emerging now as a force which holds considerable power also in Karachi. The PPP of course remains the main force in rural Sindh and in smaller towns within it. The tussle began early, with Sindh consistently accusing the central government of not allocating it the funds or the kind of development it needed to develop projects and move forward with governance in the province. The Sindh government has given examples of the low allocations for Sindh despite a grand plan for the province announced earlier by the federal government. There has been a constant back and forth between the centre and Sindh, with the centre holding that the PSDP for Sindh in the federal budget was higher than before, while the province saying that allocations were uneven and that it was being treated unfairly.

The current Covid lockdown announced initially by Sindh has also been a bone of contention, with the federal government stating that a province did not have the power to go into a complete lockdown, since it hurt the country's economy, notably in major business centres such as Karachi. The high positivity rate in Sindh, however, raised experts' eyebrows over the issue of the lockdown; that question now appears to have gone on to a lower footing with the rest of the country also going into lockdowns of various kinds depending on the rate of positivity in a particular district or area. The handling of Covid vaccination in Sindh has also come under criticism from the centre.

This is obviously not an enviable situation. Karachi is the major hub of business and commerce in the country, and the Sindh and federal governments need to be able to work together if it is to prosper and the country is to improve its record on exports and other financial areas. At the same time in Karachi people are desperate to see some kind of development and at the very least, an improvement in the severe water crisis, and in the management of solid waste in a city where waste collects by the roadsides each day. The appointment of the PPP’s Murtaza Wahab as Karachi administrator is intended as a step towards solving the civic, political and social issues of Karachi. Wahab has called for support from people and the media. He is also optimistic that his links with both provincial and local government will help things move forward. But, eventually, a partnership is needed with the federation and the Sindh government working out some pattern which they can follow to work together and improve the lot of the people of the province where poverty has been recorded at high levels and where wars over water and other problems in the largest city of Karachi dominate the lives of many who live there.