Despite powers, have not allotted an inch of land: Murad

Says Centre and Sindh can have a working relationship if both stay within Constitutional limits

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the Constitution of Pakistan gives land allotment powers to a chief minister, but "I have not allotted even an inch of land to anyone since I have taken over as a chief executive of the province."

He was talking to the media at Ocean Mall, where he inaugurated the three-day 6th 'Sartyoon Sang Crafts' exhibition, organised by the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in collaboration with Sindh government.

In response to a question, he said that he won't discuss the Joint Interrogation Team report because the Supreme Court of Pakistan had forbidden its discussion in the media, otherwise he had vast and credible material to respond to each and every clause relating to him.

To another question, the chief minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had vowed to provide buses for the Green Line mass transit project, when he had visited Karachi to pay respect to the Father of the Nation and subsequently presided over a meeting on development projects. "The minutes of the meeting are available and anybody can read them," he said, adding that otherwise, the provincial government was ready to procure buses for the project.

He added that the Sindh Governor may not have read the minutes of the Prime Minister's meeting, otherwise he would not have given such a statement. "I am surprised that after three months of the Prime Minister's meeting and the decision, the Sindh Governor says that the provincial government has to procure the buses," he said.

Relationship with Centre

Speaking about the relationship between the federal and the provincial governments, CM Shah said, "the Constitution of Pakistan determines the working parameters between the Centre and provinces and if both, Centre and provincial governments will work within their Constitutional limits, there will be no problem." He added that the functions of the Governor were also very clear in the Constitution and "he [Governor] knows them very well." The CM went on to say that whenever PM had visited Karachi, he had received him and attended all meetings to which he he was invited. "We are political people and will never disgrace the highest constitutional offices," he said.

The CM also criticised the media for not focusing on the core issue of poor revenue collection by the federal government. "This is an important and glaring issue that the federal government has failed to achieve its revenue recoveries targets," he said, adding that the Federal Board Revenue's collection had shown only a two percent increase, while the Sindh Revenue Board collection had shown 18 percent growth. "We are in a better position because we are focusing on our governance, performance and service to the people while they [federal government] are engaged in unproductive work and futile exercise of giving exaggerating political statements," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2019.