Sindh is not CM’s fiefdom: Haleem

PTI leader demands Murad’s resignation in maiden media interaction after assuming role of PA opposition leader

The new opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, said on Wednesday, "Sindh is not a fiefdom of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and he is answerable to 60 million people of the province."

Sheikh, along with other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders, was addressing a press conference for the first time after assuming the role of the opposition leader in the provincial assembly.

His remarks regarding the CM being answerable to people came in response to the latter's statement, where he said he was not answerable to the prime minister.

Continuing his tirade against the Sindh government and CM, Sheikh said parties that drew up the charter of democracy were now violating it.

He alleged the CM of corrupting funds and failing to deliver in the province.

"The CM should tender a resignation," he demanding, adding that his party would table a no-confidence motion in the provincial assembly whenever they would get the go-ahead from the PM, so as to bring a change in Sindh.

He further remarked, "The rulers of Sindh will have to answer where they spent Rs7.88 trillion over the past 12 years."

The opposition leader accused the Sindh government of "devouring Rs80 billion," which was released on account of subsidies.

Read: I am only accountable to Sindh Assembly: CM Murad

He dubbed the captive power subsidy, sugar subsidy and other incentives given by the government "novel means of corruption in Sindh."

Sheikh went on to say that the provincial government had failed to implement the laws passed by the Sindh Assembly.

Giving an example, he said the Sindh Assembly had passed the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which bound private schools to allocate a quota for children from low-income backgrounds and parents to send their children to government schools.

"But the law was never implemented, as a result of which, six million children are out of school today," he decried.

Speaking about the Public Accounts Committee, Sheikh demanded that the opposition leader be made the committee's head.

"When [Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson] Bilawal Bhutto Zardari can be made the head of the human rights committee in the National Assembly (NA), when PPP MNA Naveed Qamar can head the commerce committee in the NA, then why can't opposition members be made the heads of standing committees in the Sindh Assembly?" he questioned.

Also speaking on the occasion, PTI leader Khurram Sher Zaman said his party had been raising voice for the people of Sindh for the past eight years, but PPP ministers had turned a blind eye to the issues that gripped the province.

"Public transport in Karachi is in dismal condition and the local government department is being used by the ruling party in the province for political purposes," he said, urging the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of growing unemployment in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2021.