Karachi rains: Shibli fires broadside at Sindh govt for seeking $10b from Centre

While criticising Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government in Sindh for allegedly politicising the long-standing issues of Karachi, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Monday said that whenever a national issue arises, the party's leadership disappears from the scene.

"Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah says that they needed $10 billion to improve the condition of Karachi. Firstly, we don't have this much money... and secondly even if we had, we wouldn't have given it to them because it would have ended up in pockets of their leaders," Shibli said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

He said that the Sindh government has taken trillions of rupees from the Centre however the situation on the ground remains miserable. "If you look at hospitals, roads, sewerage system, law and order situation and schools [in Sindh], the condition is terrible," he added.

The federal minister said opposition parties while giving advises to the Centre for the betterment of Pakistan, only seek NRO for their leadership. "There's no agenda [of opposition parties], they only want to fail the present government so they could carry out some legislation which would enable their leaders to make an escape... in other words they want NRO," he added.

He acknowledged that the country was going through a difficult period but added that the government was making an effort to bring it back to its feet. "There is no question that these are indeed tough times. The prices of commodities have increased but the government is trying to tackle these issues."

Praising the government's efforts in battling the Covid-19 pandemic, he cautioned the masses not to get relaxed and continue following the standard operation procedures (SOPs) issued by the government.

Earlier, in a tweet, Shibli had said the federal government and its departments are providing all possible support to Sindh government after heavy rains in the province.

He said that the people of Quaid’s city are being tested after heavy rains and sympathies of entire nation are with them.

The federal minister further said that all possible assistance is being provided to the provincial government without any political bias.

'Leave $10bn, just give Rs162bn promised to Karachi'

Responding to Shibli Faraz's comments, Syed Nasir Shah in a statement said that leave $10 billion, just give Rs162 billion to Karachi, the amount promised by Prime Minister Imran Khan on several occasions.

He also demanded of the PTI government to hand over Sindh's share of Rs172 billion under the NFC Awards. He further said that if there was a Nobel Prize for misleading the nation, PTI government would get it.

Earlier, in a statement, Nasir had said that the government will rebuild Karachi’s infrastructure after record downpours disrupted city’s normal life last week.

He said that the provincial government will make up for the losses caused by the heavy rains in the metropolis.

“The provincial government stands with flood-affected people of Sindh and will not leave them alone in this difficult time,” said Shah.

The provincial minister further said that the government will announce a development packages for rain-affected cities of Sindh after evaluating devastation caused by floods and rainfall.

“Karachiites are still suffering the miseries of accumulated waters, choked sewerage lines and long hours of power outages for the last three days after the spell of torrential rains caused urban flooding in many areas adjacent to nullahs.”