HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party (PPP) Senator Abdul Latif Ansari has said that Sindh should be given its due share in resources, and attributed the denial of the right to the unnecessary delay in the holding of a fair census. He argued that only a fair census could determine a province’s actual share in resources and representation.

Senator Ansari was speaking to the media at his residence here on Thursday.

He said that Sindh remain­ed deprived of development due to the 15-year delay in the holding of a census. The PPP had always focussed on the issues of development and poverty alleviation.

Know more: Sindh seeks early census, provincial representation in Ogra

He said Punjab’s population had gone up to 56 per cent from 52 per cent while Sindh’s population remained at 24 per cent. He said Sindh produced 70 per cent of the total gas resources and, therefore, should be given its due share in resources on the basis of its population. Even the head offices of gas companies were not established in this province which was a great injustice with the people of Sindh, he added.

The senator vowed to raise his voice in the upper house of parliament for Sindh’s share in gas, water and other resources.

In reply to a question, he said it was not the PPP government that had drafted the Water Apportionment Accord, 1991. It was not able to make any changes because it lacked majority in the house, he explained.

Senator Ansari said it was former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who had brought him back into politics in 1988 and that he remained inactive when she went into exile. He thanked PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for acknowledging his services to the party by getting him elected as senator. He was of the view that electricity, education and environment should be given serious consideration. He said the PPP was obstructed whenever it tried to launch development schemes in Sindh.

He conceded that he had erred by not participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) thinking that such a movement could achieve nothing when the founder chairman of the PPP was executed. He said he then believed that the movement would lead to the installation of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as prime minister. “It was my political mistake,” he said.

Oil firms told to abide by SC order

Matiari Deputy Commis­sioner Fayyaz Hussain Abbasi has directed oil exploration companies to abide by the Supreme Court’s directives, requiring them to invest in local development schemes out of their business profit and prefer local people of the areas concerned in jobs.

Presiding over a meeting of the representatives of different oil and gas exploration companies on Thursday, he said they (companies) should meet corporate social responsibilities (CSR) by spending on development of the area from their funds out of the determined share.

The meeting decided that these funds would be spent on the government main primary school Matiari for supply of clean drinking water by building a water storage tank, laying of drainage lines, construction of toilets and other repairs.

The DC directed the companies to submit details of works done under the CSR and jobs given to local people. The meeting was informed that companies’ works were monitored by the district administration to implement apex court’s directives in letter and spirit.

OGDCL Administrative Officer Barkat Ali Sohu said his company was to spend Rs1.4 million towards supply of clean drinking water, drainage, education and health out of the CSR and the amount would be spent in the main primary school.

A PPL officer, Mohammad Akram, said his company was working near Khando under the CSR activities initially.

He said it would submit details of the proposed expenditures of Rs1 million in the relevant account in the next 15 days for schemes in villages located in the surroundings of company and would implement them in consultation with the administration concerned.

A representative of a company, Ali Abbas Junejo, informed the meeting that his company was spending Rs2.4 million out of Rs4 million in Barkat Bhatti middle school and the remaining amount would be utilised for building three classrooms in the said school.

Published in Dawn March 20th, 2015

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