‘PM failed to fulfil coalition promises’

GDA’s Palijo accuses Centre of sidelining development projects in Sindh

HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has failed to fulfil the promises he made to his federal government’s coalition partners, alleged Grand Democratic Alliance general secretary Ayaz Latif Palijo.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Palijo claimed the prime minister had neither honoured his promises nor given any authorities to his coalition partners.

“Khan’s behaviour towards his allies and other parties has remained formal and reserved. And the results of such conduct are not evident before all,” he insisted, further accusing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government of ignoring Sindh in terms of development projects and shutting the doors of federal jobs for the people of the province.

“The people of Sindh are suffering the curse of prolonged power outages in the sweltering summer heat and the province is also being denied its due share of water from the Indus River,” he stated, reiterating that the PM had failed to live up to the pledges he made towards the province in his election campaign.

Holding the Centre equally responsible for the prevailing hunger, poverty and unemployment in Sindh, he said the government should have promoted industrialisation by setting up designated zones in all major districts of the province.

Taking the opportunity to draw comparisons between Khan and former rulers Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, Palijo expressed the belief that Benazir, Zardari and Musharraf had remained closely connected to their allies, while Sharif, though he had ignored Sindh, worked well with his government’s other partners.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2020.