Sindh govt spending on Karachi has hit Rs458bn in 2021-22: Ghani

The Sindh government’s total spending on the development of Karachi has gone up to Rs458 billion in the current financial year 2021-22, while in contrast, the federal government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has done nothing except for making false promises to develop the provincial capital.

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani made these remarks while addressing a news conference on Wednesday. He said that development works carried out in Karachi in the past six or seven years by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government have no match at all.

He said Federal Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain was under an obligation to inform the masses about the names of the development projects of Karachi that had been included in the Rs1.1 trillion development package for the city.

Ghani said it seemed that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had been deliberately denied the opportunity to speak at the recently held ceremony to perform the groundbreaking of the Karachi Circular Railway project, while the reason of the paucity of time was merely used as an excuse for the purpose.

Giving a breakdown of the provincial government’s spending on Karachi, he said that a sum of Rs56.5 billion had been reserved for Karachi in the provincial Annual Development Programme for the current fiscal year.

He added that a sum of Rs401 billion is being spent on Karachi through different development schemes under the mode of public-private partnership and the projects funded by donor agencies.

He said that the federal information minister had recently made the false claim that the provincial government had not spent a single paisa on the development of Karachi while the federal government had been spending Rs1.1 trillion for the purpose.

He added that a deliberate attempt was being made to mislead the masses, as the Centre had been falsely claiming ownership of the development projects in Karachi that had been funded by the provincial government.

Ghani said that the PTI’s inefficient and ineligible federal government had not spent a single paisa on the development of Karachi, as a large majority of its announcements for the development of the city had yet to be materialised.

He informed the media that the provincial government had been providing a total of Rs26.6 billion against an annual grant to different prestigious healthcare institutions like the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, so that the residents of Karachi were provided with the best possible treatment facilities.

Replying to a question, he said that the stance of the Sindh government on the issue of development was very much clear, as the federal government’s such works should fully conform to the will and aspirations of the people of the province.

Responding to another query, he said that both the Sindh CM and the prime minster were holders of constitutional offices, so meetings should be held between the two.

On another question, he said that the honourable chief justice of Pakistan should consider the issue of the Nasla Tower in Karachi on humanitarian grounds because the flat and shop owners of the project were not at fault, since the real estate project had been built after the approval of all the relevant agencies.