HYDERABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi on Thursday said that it was now [Sindh Chief Minister Syed] Murad Ali Shah’s turn after [Pakistan Peoples Party MNA] Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah was arrested.

He observed that conditions in Sindh were critical where rulers were punishing people of urban centres of the province and making them consume contaminated water. He said the rulers of Sindh had destroyed cities and the province and pocketed public funds. “Sindh will now witness a change,” he added.

Speaking to local reporters at the residence of a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader in Latifabad, Mr Naqvi argued: “How could the chief minister remain outside jail after signing those documents and instruments which are linked with the cases of jailed [PPP co-chairman] Asif Ali Zardari, [MNA] Faryal Talpur and Omni group operatives?”

According to the PTI leader, Sindh’s rulers have now realised that their days are numbered and that no one is going to offer them a deal.

He did not rule out imposition of governor’s rule, invoking of Article 149 or declaration of financial emergency.

He wondered why the PPP was clamouring when the Constitution was drafted by “grandfather” [Zulfikar Ali Bhutto] and the 18th Constitutional Amendment was incorporated in it by “papa” [Asif Ali Zardari].

Mr Naqvi said that the articles which were part of the Constitution could be invoked, explaining that Article 149 did not pertain to creation of a province or separation of a city from its province.

He said that the Sindh government must be afraid of the possibility of Article 149 to be enforced on the entire province.

He said the federal government did realise that citizens were facing difficult conditions, and argued: “that’s why it has launched programmes like ‘Ehsaas’ and ‘Kifalat’.

Mr Naqvi said that “kachra [garbage] politics in Karachi will continue to be seen as long as the MQM-P, PSP, PPP and PTI are not cleansed internally”.

Referring to the most recent arrest of former director general of parks in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation by NAB, he sarcastically remarked that it was to be seen whether Liaquat Qaimkhani was connected with some other Qaimkhani — clearly alluding to PSP president Anees Qaimkhani.

Mr Naqvi termed corruption a ‘cancer’ and pointed out that Imran Khan had established the first cancer hospital in Pakistan before he entered PM House.

Expressing his concern over excessive power outages in Hyderabad, he cautioned the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) management to mend its ways and desist from harassing consumers.

About the mysterious death of a BDS final-year student, Nimirta Mirchandani in her hostel room in Larkana, Mr Naqvi said the police must hold a fair investigation into the incident to help determine whether it was a suicide or murder case.

He slammed the Sindh government for failing to ensure availability of anti-rabies vaccines at hospitals, and said those who were not even able to do that must go home.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2019