HYDERABAD: Adviser to Sindh chief minister on information, Maula Bux Chandio, has said the prime minister’s handling of Panama Leaks can have repercussions but rubbished fears of imposition of martial law, saying ‘it has become a thing of the past now’.

The prime minister’s cabinet members were not sincere to him as they were not showing him a true picture of the state of affairs, said Mr Chandio while speaking to journalists during a visit to Shoro House in Kotri and later to makeshift cool water facilities set up by PPP activists in the city on Sunday.

Mr Chandio wished speedy recovery to the PM and said the PML-N had always paid more attention to army generals than the poor masses. The chief of army staff had achieved successes against terrorists in his tenure and it was premature to say anything about his retirement. Martial law had become a thing of the past now and there was no truth in insinuations about military rule, he said.

About the performance of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, he warned that if the power utility did not mend its ways and did not stop afflicting people with inflated bills, it would risk disrupting Hyderabad’s peace, which would take a heavy toll on both provincial and federal governments.

He said during a visit to makeshift cool water facilities set up by PPP activists across the city that Hesco had resorted to collective punishment by having removed pole-mounted transformers to cut off power supply to large localities because of a few defaulting consumers who were reluctant to pay bills.

He called the power crisis in Sindh artificial and said it did not strike Punjab with the same intensity. He advised minister of state for water and power Abid Sher Ali to kick out all corrupt officials and officers from Hesco to improve the performance of the power utility instead of punishing the poor.

Mr Chandio said that PPP had some political differences with the prime minister who was though a good person. If PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari went to see him, he would be fulfilling a religious duty to look after the sick, he said.

He rejected possibility of any alliance between PPP and PML-N and complained the federal government was awarding special packages and development schemes to only one province which was causing a sense of deprivation among small provinces.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2016