KARACHI: “It is a historic day that the provincial government is completing its five-year term,” Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said while addressing the farewell cabinet meeting at the CM House here on Monday evening.

The meeting was attended by all provincial ministers, advisers and special assistants, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and others.

“This is the victory for the people of Sindh who elected the current assembly and it is the victory for democracy for which our leader Benazir Bhutto laid [down] her life,” he said.

Mr Shah added he worked day in and day out during his 22-month tenure as chief minister.

“We served the people with the best of our abilities,” he said.

‘We are now returning to the people for election’

He said his focus remained more on health, education, development of infrastructure and restoration of law and order.

“We succeeded in promoting sectarian harmony and brotherhood in Sindh,” he said.

Talking about infrastructure development, the chief minister said he paid attention to rural and urban areas alike.

“Karachi now gives a beautiful look and with the restructuring of road network, underpasses and overhead bridges, the issue of traffic jams is resolved to some extent.

“But the real solution to traffic jams lies in the construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) schemes,” he said and added that work on BRT system was in progress while the KCR was in the pipeline.

Referring to the Thar Coal power plant, he said the plant would start generating electricity in a few months.

Recalling the concept of public-private partnership, he said, “Under this set-up, we constructed a bridge on the Indus River, constructed Karachi-Thatta dual carriageway and various other road networks.”

Mr Shah said road network and construction of bridges on the Indus River connected almost all districts of the province.

The chief minister thanked the leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party for posing confidence in him and his cabinet.

On the occasion, cabinet members Nisar Khuhro, Manzoor Wassan, Syed Sardar Shah and others lauded the efforts and energy of the chief minister who worked with honesty and dedication to complete the projects.

In his concluding remarks, Mr Shah said he and his cabinet were returning to the people for election.

“I am happy and satisfied that we provided whatever we could to the masses,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2018