Zardari will soon be in jail, predict PTI leaders

With gas supply resumed, PTI hits back at PPP over Karachi’s water crisis

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter president, Haleem Adil Sheikh, has warned the Sindh government to resolve the water crisis in Karachi, or the party's next protest will be in front of the Chief Minister House.

Addressing a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, Sheikh, who is the party's parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, blamed the Sindh government for the water crisis that has gripped the port city for the last several years. He was flanked by the Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi and other PTI lawmakers and leaders.

"For the last 4,000 days, the Sindh chief minister is from the Pakistan Peoples Party. Why hasn't Karachi's water problem been resolved?" he questioned.



Naqvi concurred. "Not a single drop has been added to Karachi's supply. How will they meet the city's requirement of 900 million gallons per day?" he questioned.

Bad governance

The opposition leader lamented that despite the passage of 120 days, no standing committee had been established in the Sindh Assembly. "The Sindh government is neither able to run its administration, nor the country's," he claimed, warning that the Omni Group was going down and so would the Sindh government. "Zardari's oppression will end," he remarked. He added that the former president would be sent to jail soon.

The Omni Group, owned by Anwar Majeed who is considered a close aide of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, is at the centre of a money laundering scandal worth billions of rupees. The case is currently being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency.

Directing his jibes at the local government minister Saeed Ghani next, Naqvi said, "We want a date. Tell us when you will fix the sewerage system. When will the public get water?" he questioned.

CM not without blame

When it was his turn to speak, Sheikh lashed out again at the Sindh chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah. "He [Shah] is also not innocent, as the key of the Sindh finance department is with him," he said, adding that the chief minister was generous in signing off subsidies for the Omni Group, but his pen went dry when it came to giving financial assistance for the people of Thar.



Sheikh said that LG minister Saeed Ghani would also be made accountable for his corruption. "We are not afraid of the police and anti-corruption establishment of Sindh's rulers," he said, adding that Zardari should see what his ministers were doing. "It is a matter for shame for the government of Sindh," he remarked.

Sheikh predicted that the next mandate in Sindh would be of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He said that now the gas supply had been resumed, it was time for Murad Ali Shah to tell the people when Karachi's water crisis would be resolved. The PPP leadership had taken strong exception to the suspension of gas supply to the province and had blamed the Center for the crisis.

PTI MNA Aftab Jehangir, MPA Jamal Siddiqui, MPA Shabi Qureshi, MPA Saeed Afridi, MPA Raja Azhar, MPA Ramzan Ghanchi, MPA Malik Shahzad Awan, Dr Masroor Siyal and others also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2018.