KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the Pakistan Peoples Party candidate’s victory from PS-114 constituency is the manifestation of the confidence of the people belonging to different faiths and communities in the PPP as it serves them indiscriminately.

In the last general elections, he said, a PPP candidate had bagged only 4,000 votes against 80,000 votes of the winning candidate which gave the impression as if the PPP had been wiped out from Karachi. But due to its “service record” the PPP emerged as the most acceptable party in the city. That’s the reason it was believed that PPP would be victorious in the next general elections, he added.

The chief minister was talking to the media after visiting Memon Hospital near Safoora Chowrangi along with Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Health Secretary Dr Fazal Pechuho and others on Monday afternoon.

He said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had termed the Mehmoodabad constituency `Mini-Pakistan’, because Zoroastrians, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sindhis, Punjabis, Pakhtuns, Seraikis and Baloch communities, mostly belonging to low-income group, were settled there. “The returning of PPP candidate Saeed Ghani, who bagged 40 per cent votes from PS-114, shows that the people of Pakistan believe in the PPP as it believes in them.”

In response to a question about repealing National Accountability Ordinance within the provincial set-up, Mr Shah said it was the decision of the assembly. It is the assembly which makes laws even for courts, he said. “We have done nothing wrong but have exercised our constitutional right.”

Under the 18th Amendment, combating corruption is a provincial subject and “the anti-corruption establishment is being made an autonomous body with a fixed tenure of its chairman. Our legal team is working to frame draft law for it. Once the law is made, everyone will appreciate it,” he said.

Health sector

The chief minister said the Sindh government had been pursuing the policy of public-private partnership in different sectors such as education, health, energy, roads/bridges and so on.

“Today I have visited Memon Hospital which is also a non-profit organisation and serving the ailing people of the province properly,” he said and added “we are seriously considering to make partnership with them in Gadap and Memon Goth by handing over to them the administration of our health facilities,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2017