HYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Works and Services Syed Nasir Shah has said that Bhasha dam should not be made controversial by talking about Kalabagh dam. “Article 6 [of the Constitution] is for those who subvert the Constitution,” he said while referring to Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar’s remarks hinting at possibility of a high treason case against opponents of the [Bhasha] dam.

Speaking to reporters in the offices of his department here on Tuesday, the minister said that cuts in the federal transfers would affect development works in Sindh. So, he added, no new schemes would be started and, instead, old schemes would be completed till 2019. New schemes would be launched in the next fiscal year, he said. In this regard, The minister said that in the federal supplementary budget, Sindh was given Rs49 billion less which would affect development works in the province.

Mr Shah said that if Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to work for Sindh, he would be supported but he must give effect to his announcements. He said that the PM’s predecessor had remained prime minister of a particular region and the promises he had made had never been fulfilled.

‘Bhasha dam should not be made controversial’

He said that Mr Khan used to talk about breaking the begging bowl and kept criticising successive governments for approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but now his own government was hinting at going to the same financial institution.

He recalled that Mr Khan had said he could not get along the people facing references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “but today those who are his associates are themselves affected by NAB”.

Mr Shah observed that the present local government system did not prove to be as beneficial as was expected.

Local government is the third tier of governance. When Pakistan Peoples Party introduced a powerful LG system, it was labelled as “a dual system”. The strong reaction against it forced the PPP government to do away with it, the minister said.

He said local government would be delegated more powers next year as per the relevant directives of the PPP chairman.

The minister said that issues pertaining to drainage and sewerage problem in Sindh would be resolved by Dec 2019.

He said that the Benazir Bhutto flyover in Hyderabad could not be completed due to litigation. He dispelled the impression that the previous PPP governments did not deliver, arguing that if it was true, people would not have voted for PPP in the recent general elections.

Mr Shah said that the PPP leadership had assigned a target to every minister and would remove anyone who would fail to meet his target.

Commenting on the prime minister’s proposal about nationality for immigrants settled in the country, the minister said that nowhere in the world refugees were given national identity cards. “It’s due to these refugees that the image of Pakistan is shattered internationally.”

He said that PPP believed that those Bengalis who had been living in Pakistan since 1972-73 should be given CNICs but not to the Afghans who used to stay in camps and enjoyed different facilities extended to them by a dictator.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018