KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that although the Constitution gives a CM right to allot lands, but he had not allotted “even one inch to anybody”.

The chief minister said this while talking to the media at the inauguration of a three-day Sixth Sartyoon Sang Crafts exhibition organised by the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in collaboration with the Sindh government on Friday.

Responding to a question, he said ever since he had taken over as the chief executive of the province in 2016 he did not allot land to any person or organisation.

‘I have not allotted even an inch of land to anyone since taking over charge of chief minister’

He said he did not receive any notice from the National Accountability Bureau for his appearance on Friday. “I don’t know how media aired this news,” he said.

When asked about the report of a joint investigation team (JIT), he said that he would not discuss the JIT report because the Supreme Court had forbidden discussion on it in the media. Otherwise, he said, he had credible material to respond to each and every allegation against him.

To another question, the chief minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised to provide buses for the Green Line project during his visit to Karachi where he had also presided over a meeting on development projects.

“The minutes of the meeting are available and anybody can read them,” he said, adding that otherwise the provincial government was ready to procure buses for the project.

He added that the Sindh governor might not have read the minutes of the prime minister’s meeting. “I am surprised that after three months of the prime minister’s meeting the Sindh governor says that the provincial government has to procure buses,” he said.

Talking about relationship between the federal and the provincial governments, the chief minister said: “The Constitution has determined the working perimeters between the Centre and provinces and if both, will work within their constitutional limits there will be no problem.”

The functions of the governor were also very clear in the Constitution, he said, adding: “He [governor] knows it very well.”

He recalled that whenever prime minister visited Karachi he had received him and attended the meetings in which he was invited. “We are political people and would never disgrace the highest constitutional offices,” he said.

Mr Shah deplored that the media was not focusing the core issue of poor revenue collection by the federal government. “This is an important and glaring issue that the federal government has failed to achieve its revenue recovery targets,” he said.

He said that the collection by the Federal Board of Revenue had shown only two per cent growth while the Sindh Revenue Board’s collection had shown 18pc growth.

“We are in a better position because we are focusing on our governance, performance and service to the people while they [federal government] are engaged in unproductive work and futile exercise of giving exaggerated political statements,” he said.

To another question, he said that he had respect for the position of the governor and the governor was under oath to work in consultation with the chief minister and his cabinet.

Earlier inaugurating the exhibition, he said the objective of the exhibition in the city was to provide market linkages to rural women and artisans so that they could display and sell their products directly.

He appreciated the SRSO for its efforts for poverty reduction particularly of poor womenfolk and said that handicrafts and artefact help create harmony among different cultures and added such platforms help indigenous artisans to market their products.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019