With single seat in PA, JI trying to dictate majority party: Ghani

Criticising the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for its ongoing protest drive against the new local government law, Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani on Monday said that an opposition political party having just a single lawmaker in the Sindh Assembly was trying to dictate the majority party having 100 MPAs to adopt the local government law of its own choice.

He made this remark on Monday while responding at a press conference to a query concerning the JI protest sit-in continuing outside the Sindh Assembly against the newly passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2021 for more than two weeks.

Ghani said the constitution fully empowered the majority party in the assembly to do any legislation of its choice. He added that although talks were under way with the JI but their demands had so far been not practicable.

The information minister also termed the joint protest of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) not impressive. He said the people of Karachi rejected the opposition parties’ move two days back as they had sensed that the agitation in fact was meant to divert attention from the genuine problems of the people.

He maintained that the people in the province were not at all concerned about the provincial local government law as they were worried about the issues of unemployment, natural gas crisis and hike in the prices of essential products, including medicines.

According to Ghani, the three main opposition parties of Sindh on Saturday were not able to pull more than 1,000 people out on the roads of the city in their joint protest. He said the joint opposition’s protest in the city had virtually become a competition among the followers of different political parties to wave their respective parties’ flags.

He recalled that opposition parties which in the past used to blame the MQM for committing corruption, violence, and terrorism had joined hands with the same party. He said the local government system was being used as a pretext as the real motive behind the opposition’s protest was to divide the people of Sindh on ethnic lines and divert the attention of the public away from the genuine issues in the country.

He claimed that the people of Karachi and the rest of Sindh did not support those whose politics was based on ethnic grounds. Ghani said the MQM had raised the slogan that the rural Sindh would not be allowed to capture Karachi. He called for the MQM’s allies PTI and GDA to ask Muttahida who were the people being considered as non-natives in Karachi.

The information minister said the political parties that did not succeed in the recent cantonment elections and NA-249 by-poll would face even more crushing defeat in the forthcoming local government elections in Sindh. The opposition parties had been doing agitation on the roads of the city out of their fear of embarrassing defeat in the local government polls, he added.

Ghani reiterated that the Sindh government had devolved the necessary financial, political and administrative powers to the municipal agencies of Sindh.

He lamented that Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had always been blamed even in the dog bite cases in the province. However, on the contrary, no one among the rulers in the other areas of the country was willing to accept the responsibility and resign over the tragic killings of 23 tourists in Murree, he added.

To another question regarding the announcement of the PTI to stage a long march from Ghotki to Karachi, the information minister remarked that the opposition party was welcome to hold the march but surely it had to face the wrath of the people of Sindh due to the serious issues of price hike and gas crisis.