Playing favourites?: ‘Sindh capable of resolving Pakistan’s energy crisis’

Provincial ministers are up in arms over the federal government's 'biased' attitude

KARACHI: Sindh has unlimited natural resources and can resolve all the country's energy crises, but the federal government is biased towards Sindh and its people, said the provincial finance minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Addressing a press conference at Chief Minister House along with the minister for information, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, and parliamentary minister Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro on Sunday, he announced that his government would use all possible legal platforms to get due rights of Sindh, including knocking on the doors of the courts.

Sindh ministers warned the federal government not to play dual games with the provincial government, otherwise the people of Sindh would come out on the roads against their biased attitude. "We'll use all means of resistance but won't allow the federal government to take Sindh's resources (gas) to Punjab," said Shah.

"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should represent the whole country," said Shah. He asked PM Sharif to tell the people of Sindh why coal power projects were being introduced in Sindh and why imported coal was being used for them. "Why is Tharparkar's coal not being exploited?"



Shah said that Sindh can generate huge amounts of power through solar and wind projects but the federal government, on the wishes of Punjab government, was creating hindrances. The federal government talks to different countries about electricity, even with India, but it doesn't consider Sindh, Shah criticised.

The minister asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) why it doesn't investigate mega project scandals like the Nandipur Power Projects. "It is the world's most expensive project," he said, adding that the power tariff will cost Rs35 per unit.

Talking about the seriousness of the federal government, especially PM Sharif, the minister said that a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) is not being called. "This is an illegal step by the prime minister," he said, explaining that a meeting should be called within 90 days. The PM has convened just four meetings since he has come into power.

"We'll knock on the doors of the court on the issue of the CCI meeting," Shah announced.

Shah also alleged that the premier and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, are involved in all manner of businesses, claiming that the investigating institutions don't look into such serious issues of corruption.

Khuhro said that it was not the first time that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has adopted a biased attitude with Sindh. "They ignored the Keti Bunder project launched by Benazir Bhutto," he claimed. He said that the Tharparkar Power Project was not initiated when the PML-N government came into power in 1994.

The senior minister said that India is generating 2,700 megawatts of electricity through wind, adding that Sindh has the capacity to generate more but the federal government has shown a biased attitude.

"The PML-N didn't like the Keti Bunder project and now it doesn't like wind and solar projects in Sindh. We'll protest and it's our right to do so," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2015.