KARACHI:Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that this country has a great potential to emerge as a prosperous nation if each and every one of us starts working honestly.
This he said on Tuesday while addressing the participants of the 46th Specialized Training Programme. There were 34 under training police officers, including two from Air Port Security (ASF). The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Sindh Mumtaz Shah, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh Dr Kaleem Imam, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Home Secretary Usman Chachar, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Education Ahsan Mangi and others.
The chief minister said that the Sindh police had been made demoralized when PPP government came into power in 2008 because of certain reasons such as target killing of policemen who participated in Karachi operation, lack of training and latest equipment and top of its poor salary structure.
“The provincial government improved the morale of the police by equipping them with latest training, arms and ammunitions, and enhanced their salary structure besides raising compensation for martyred policeman along with a job for the heir of the martyr and continuing the salary of the martyred policemen till his superannuation,” he said and added: “These measures boosted confidence among the policemen and they participated in the targeted operation launched in the city under National Action Plan so efficiently that they worked out major terrorist cases such as Safora incident.”
Shah lauded Pak army who gave latest trainings to policemen and extended their full support. The credit of successful Karachi operation goes to police, rangers and intelligence agencies, he said. “Karachi, which was declared as the 6thmost dangerous city, has now come down to 76th; this was the joint work of police, rangers and intelligence agencies,” he said.
Talking about Thar coal, Shah said that Thar had changed and now it had embarked upon changing Pakistan by offering energy solution from Thar coal. “We have realized the dream of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto by launching the first-ever 260 MW coal power plant and now work on Block-I and Block-IV had started that would generate more than 20,000 MW in the next 10 years.
He said once the international investors had run away from investing in Thar coal when the then federal government had cancelled the contract of a Hong Kong-based investor who had started work in Thar coal. “Therefore, we decided to start coal mining and installation of power plant in partnership with Engro,” he said and added it was the first ever largest public private partnership in the country.
The chief minister said that the provincial government was also working for production of renewable energy. He added that Sindh was producing over 1100 MW wind energy and installation of 14 new projects was in progress. “We are also going to start developing grid stations on PPP mode through a provincial company,” he said.
Talking about development of road network, he said that all the provincial roads, major high ways such as Thatta-Sujawal routes and bridges on Indus River had been constructed. Shah said that the provincial government had served the people of Sindh, but “there is an issue of perception with our government and we have to improve it.”