KARACHI: Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto, president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Sindh chapter, has said that the Kalabagh dam is an anti-Sindh project, which should not be built. However, he said, the future need of water could be met by construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam, whose foundation stone was laid by Pakistan Peoples Party prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in 2011 and no one had any objection to building that dam.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, the PTI leader said that he was grateful to Prime Minister Imran Khan for tasking him with organising the party in Sindh. “Our efforts would be to come up to his expectations by mobilising and organising the party at the grass-roots level and take the party machine to such a level that in the general elections of 2023 it would need no electoral alliance.”

In reply to a question, he said the situation in Sindh was not hidden from anyone because the PPP government during its 11-year rule had failed to deliver to the people. He said if compared with the progress made by other provinces during the period, Sindh had lagged far behind. The people of Sindh were still living in the old Pakistan. “We shall see that the circumstances in Sindh also changed so that fruits of democracy trickled down to the common man of the province. The people have a lot of expectations from Imran Khan and he will not disappoint them,” he said.

Says Sindh has lagged far behind other provinces in 11 years

In reply to another question, Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto dispelled the impression of groupings in the party saying that there was no grouping in the PTI. “In fact our party workers are a great asset and we will give them due positions and take them along to make the province a fortress of the PTI,” he said.

He said like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Imran Khan also considered the people as a source of power whose mandate had brought him into power.

The PTI leader dispelled the impression that Imran Khan had issued orders to issue national identity cards to Afghans and Bengalis living in Sindh, saying that so far no instructions had been issued by Mr Khan to the National Database and Registration Authority except a briefing on the issue. He said the PPP was trying to cover up its shortcomings and incompetence by raising non-issues.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2018