Sindh information minister wants six-month stint for caretaker setup

Acknowledges performance of govt depts is far from satisfactory

HYDERABABD: Sindh Law and Information Minister Jameel Yusuf, who also holds some other portfolios, has said that the interim government should ideally be given a stint of at least six months.

"The caretaker government has been given a short period of time to conduct the [general] elections," said Yusuf, while talking to media at the Hyderabad Press Club on Saturday. He contended that a six-month period was necessary for the caretakers so they could examine and tell people about the outgoing government's performance. He suggested to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that the transfer of the bureaucratic machinery from one province to another would have given better results.



"The ECP should have thought about it. The bureaucrats which the politicians wanted to post [in certain positions] were posted four months before the government's term ended." He indirectly criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party's former Sindh government by saying that the former rulers only had only given misery to the people.

"Looking at the condition of the office of my own department, I think I shouldn't have become a minister." He opined that the elected representatives failed to resolve the people's problems, owing to which the judiciary had been compelled to intervene in administrative matters.

Yusuf lamented that the citizens of Pakistan had only been burdened with taxes after taxes. "No one asked what the need was for constructing a new building for the Sindh Assembly while leaving the historic building."

He said the caretaker government was trying to ensure free, fair and transparent elections besides contributing its part in improving the performance of the government's various departments. He acknowledged that the performance of the government departments was far from satisfactory and that merit had been ignored, adding that the plaques of development projects executed from taxpayers' money bore the names of politicians.

Earlier, the minister presided over separate meetings in the Circuit House, Shahbaz Building and office of the information and archives department.