‘Sindh will not share power’

KARACHI:

Sindh’s administrative and governmental powers will not be shared with anyone, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah declared on Monday.

The chief minister was addressing a news conference on Monday, a day after it was reported that a committee, comprising representatives from the city’s three main stakeholders – the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) – would be formed to address the issues, facing the metropolis.

The development came after the chief minister, along with provincial Education Minister Saeed Ghani and Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, met Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Minister Asad Umar, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal.

“Some people are discussing things that are constitutionally impossible,” Chief Minister Murad told the news conference, referring to the political conversation surrounding Karachi’s governance in recent days.

“The Constitution mentions four provinces and every province has its constitutional status, privileges and role, but some people have started talking about extra-constitutional measures just to achieve their wishful thinking,” he said, urging the media not to take such discussions seriously.

The chief minister added that some quarters were bringing up the division of Sindh just to serve India’s purpose and divert public attention from the atrocities in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“Sindh is our motherland and those talking about its bifurcation are not only its enemies but also the enemies of Pakistan,” Murad asserted, warning the “enemies” against such “costly” actions.

“Karachi is the capital of Sindh and it has the honour of running the country economically; this disturbs some people,” he went on to say. “But Sindh is a single unit and its division will not be possible in our lifetime.”

Confirming the earlier meeting, he said it was meant to discuss the cleaning of Karachi’s storm-water drains and the completion of pending development work, adding that while the formation of a committee to resolve Karachi’s issues had been discussed, no such committee had yet been constituted.

The chief minister said he was asking the Centre to take ownership of Karachi since the people of the city had elected PTI representatives, but instead, its members were talking about the fragmentation of Sindh. “The federal and provincial governments should work together.”

Cleaning drains

Murad said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chief had earlier met him to discuss the cleaning of Karachi’s storm-water drains, adding that the NDMA had been tasked with cleaning three nullahs in the city, while the Sindh government was in the process of cleaning 35 other major nullahs.

“When heavy rains wreaked havoc in the city, the prime minister ordered the NDMA to Karachi, which was a good move,” he said, adding that the NDMA’s job was to help the provincial governments during disasters and natural calamities.

He claimed that when the NDMA witnessed the Sindh government’s work, it, too, endorsed the provincial government’s work to complete the task of cleaning the nullahs. “The matter was then taken up in the Supreme Court, which assigned the task to the NDMA.”

Holding up a newspaper cutting from 1954, showing flooding in Karachi, Murad added that this was not the first time that heavy rains had left parts of the city submerged. He claimed that after 2008, the Sindh government had taken numerous measures to drain rainwater within hours, further claiming that encroachments on the drains had not emerged during the PPP tenure.

On the PPP’s performance, he said the government had invested Rs40 billion in the metropolis and more investment into the city’s uplift was being done through donor agencies.