SUKKUR: Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has quashed rum­ours about imposition of governor’s rule in Sindh and said it is nothing but pure figment of imagination.

“It is out of the question that Sindh will be ruled by a governor,” he stressed while talking to representatives of print and electronic media at Jatoi House here on Monday. He rejected the rum­ours that a conspiracy was being hatched against the Sindh government at the Prime Minister’s House and criticised the provincial government for expressing resentment over prime minister’s calling chief secretary and IGP of Sindh to Islamabad.

The two functionaries represented the federation and they were bound to respond to prime minister’s call and give it priority over all other responsibilities, he said, adding that the Sindh government should change its mindset.

About former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif’s departure for London, the governor said that Mr Sharif obtained permission to leave on the pretext of severe multiple diseases that he was supposed to be suffering from.

Now his daughter Maryam Nawaz wanted to follow him on grounds that she had to look after her ailing father but she would fail in her attempt.

However, “the government respects courts and if an honourable court allows her to leave, we won’t have any objection”, he added.

He said the prime minister was striving hard to create jobs for the jobless youth and soon great opportunities would open up for the youth. Previous government wasted Rs87 billion over laptop scheme, which proved to be highly unproductive, he said.

He said that the opposition was harping on the same tune that the “PM is selected, not elected” and the line had been repeated so many times that it had now become a joke.

He said the government was determined to face any forward bloc against it if it was formed at all and assured media persons that chief of army staff would complete his next tenure of three years.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2019