KARACHI: Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the Spokesperson for Sindh Government and Advisor to CM Sind on Law, Environment, Climate Change, and Coastal Development, has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is bound to abide by the constitution under which he has taken an oath and it emphasizes equitable distribution of resources among all the provinces.
“Sindh is the highest revenue earner but is constantly being ignored by the PTI government,” he said while addressing a news conference in Sindh Assembly Committee Room, according to a handout issued today. Wahab said that the federal government had spent its funds on motorways in Punjab. The federal government had built motorways in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but for motorways in Sindh, it does not provide funds. Strangely enough from the schemes of the Ministry of Communications, 22 schemes were allocated for Punjab, 21 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and only six schemes were given to Sindh. Is this a fair distribution under the constitution? Sindh pays 70% of revenue.
Sindh gave Rs 6 billion since 2017 to the federal government. Despite taking this amount, it did not spend its share for Indus Highway. Sindh, which gives 70% revenue, is given only 2 schemes in the Federal Ministry of Finance and 18 schemes in Punjab. For Punjab’s roads, the federation has given 35,600 million schemes. The federation is providing funds for the construction of bridges in Punjab. In Sindh, the federation has given UC-level drainage schemes.
Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that on TV appearance Asad Umar had declared everything wrong but when he was asked for details, he said that there were no details. Surprisingly, the Minister for Planning and Development did not have the details. The Sindh Government had given only seventeen schemes. Being an economic hub, Karachi should have developed but Karachi is where it has been since along. Murtaza Wahab said that if you compare Lahore with Sukkur, it is clear that motorways are being built in Lahore but why Karachi-Sukkur Motorway is not being built. He said that it was surprising that why it is urged to building public-private partnership roads in Sindh, building highways is the responsibility of the federation.
Murtaza Wahab further said that the people of Sindh are the most moderate. We recognize the right of every person to protest. Violence cannot be tolerated. That is why the Sindh government gave the protesters the right to protest peacefully. Everyone has the right to disagree. No one’s personal property can be allowed to be damaged. That is why the police took action and people were arrested because the state has to look after things. Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that the use of the Lyari Expressway is necessary to solve the traffic problems of Karachi. In addition, compared to the development work of the Sindh Government, our performance is better of course one should ask questions, he remarked, but one should talk with documentary evidence.
He lamented that no serious steps had been taken to link Karachi port with the rest of the country. The federation has not given its share so far and the fact that the captain did not take any action against the railway minister over the train accidents is true. One is the Pakistan of PTI and its allies, the other Pakistan in Sindh province. The people of Sindh have repeatedly rejected PTI. The people of Sindh have rejected PTI for not having pain for them. Sindh recorded its written protest against the federal government’s PSDP and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah pointed out the unfair distribution in the federal PSDP.
PTI has proved through its work that it has no interest in Sindh. Communication at different levels of the government is carried out in writing. When we received the details of the PSDP, we presented our protest in writing. The Sindh Chief Minister wrote a letter on June 5 informing the Prime Minister.
He noted that in 2018, PTI, MQM, and GDA were rejected by the people of Sindh. The people also defeated them in NA-249. These are the three so-called representative opposition parties. Wahab referring to the opposition parties of Sindh said that how many times they had walked out of the National Assembly and Senate on gas and water issues. Aminul Haq, Ali Zaidi, and Fehmida Mirza are all from Sindh. How many times have they spoken in the committee? They are not with us because of their hatred with PPP. Wahab said that by allocating Rs10 billion for Sindh in the current financial year, they spent only Rs50 crore and the federal government just paid lip service to Karachi and reduced the expenditures on it to zero.