PSP starts sit-in

Demands Sindh govt to hand over budgetary powers to local bodies

KARACHI:

Pak Sarzameen Party on Sunday staged a sit-in at Fawara Chowk against the Local Government Amendment Act. PSP Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal said the sitin is restricted to Fawarah Chawk since the PSL teams are stationed near the Chief Minister's House.

We cannot tarnish Pakistan's honour by protesting outside the CM House. Kamal categorically informed the movers and shakers of the country that he will not call-off the protest as long as the PPP-led Sindh government does not handover budgetary powers, and devolve management control of civic departments to the local government, in accordance with the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) formula, and spirit of LG system, being exercised globally.

PPP does not want to create, and empower institutions, but destroy them by desolating and seizing their resources. The PPP cannot fool us. Until our demands are not met, we will remain sitting here. "If anyone tries to do adventure, the answer will be in the same language." he said.

PSP chief was the first amongst protesters who laid sitting sheet at the protest venue. Mustafa Kamal said that the way Pakistan is being run after the 18th Amendment has brought the country to a standstill. Administratively and financially, the country was unable to function after the 18th Amendment.

The original purpose of the 18th Amendment was not fulfilled. He said that without the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) formula, all institutions under the mayor are meaningless. The PPP is happy to hand over institutions to mayor office but the real catch is their resources which the PPP-led corrupt and bigoted government is not ready to transfer to the elected Mayor.

"We need resources too. PPP will have to give powers and resources to the people from Karachi to Kashmore. The Sindh government has only kept the institutions for keeping their budget in its hands. The provinces got powers but did not devolve them to the lower level.

Provincial governments have become the worst dictators since the 18th Amendment. The provinces are not awarding 56% of the money they receive from the federation to the grass root level, the federation has to repay the loans out of remaining 44%, it has to run army as well. While these are not the problems of the provinces, the chief ministers consider the money received in the NFC award as their private money. Sindh gets 27% out of 56%. The Chief Minister of Sindh gets Rs1,000 billion every year through NFC, Rs200 billion it earns from Karachi through taxes. The annual revenue of the Sindh government is Rs1,200 billion. The chief minister is spending these Rs1,200 billion as per his discretion, and not transferring resources to district level. "We held a sit-in for 18 days on these issues in 2017," Kamal said.

At that time people used to make fun of us on these things, today all the parties in Sindh are talking about what we have been saying for past six years.