PPP minister slams PTI over rally restriction

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) appears poised to commemorate the party's foundation day on Monday with a public meeting in Multan, as the federal government has denied permission for the event citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this regard, Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said while addressing the media at the Hyderabad Press Club on Saturday that if stopped from holding the event in Multan, the party would observe its foundation day across the country.

"The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has resorted to cheap tactics of arresting PPP workers and blocking the roads," claimed Shah, asking how it was possible for the coronavirus to spread in the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM's) rallies but not those of the PTI.

According to him, the PDM's leadership will attend the foundation day event In Multan.

"The rallies the PDM has organised so far have frightened the PTI government," the minister remarked.

He reiterated the accusation that only the opposition parties' leaders were being targeted through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while the ruling party's legislators were being protected through ordinances and stay orders.

He predicted that like Baloch leader Akhtar Mengal, other allies of the PTI's government in the Centre would also soon quit the coalition.

Housing project

Shah, who later performed the balloting of plots for a housing scheme for Hyderabad's journalists, said the prime minister's housing initiative should help journalists build homes. He added that PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had asked the provincial ministers to prepare proposals for low-cost housing schemes for their respective areas.

Improving transparency

Earlier, the provincial minister, who also holds the housing and local government portfolios, inaugurated the one-window digital centre of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) at the Sehwan Development Authority (SDA) in Jamshoro. The centre will help the allottees of various SDA housing schemes verify the properties' ownership.

According to the minister, the SDA is the first development authority in Sindh to be linked up with NADRA. "The centre will also bring transparency in [the allocation of] plots [by] the SDA."

The minister also directed the SDA to take action against all housing schemes operating without obtaining approval from the relevant departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2020.