HYDERABAD: Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Tuesday invited the Sindh government to jointly work with the federation for the sake of development in the province.

“I invite the Sindh government again to work together with us in order to redress people’s grievances,” he said, while speaking to reporters during his visit to the local office of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) at Autobhan Road.

Governor Ismail said the federal and Sindh governments should support each other’s projects. He said he was ready to sort out issues through a dialogue to make Sindh an exemplary province.

Impressing that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government’s unwillingness to work jointly with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led federal government would only cause damage to Sindh, the governor said: “Let’s end the fight if Sindh is facing the prevailing poor conditions because of it; and let’s find a solution”.

PTI MPA Jamal Siddiqui, Hyderabad CPLC chief Dr Farid Qasim and its Karachi chief Zubair Habib were present at the media talk.

Seeks reconciliation for clean and prosperous Sindh; disowns idea of any ‘change’

“We claim this is our own province and motherland, but when it comes to lifting garbage, the federal and provincial governments take different positions ... the two sides should determine their domains and responsibilities to beautify this province.”

Answering a question about CM’s Adviser Murtaza Wahab’s statement earlier in the day, Mr Ismail said he as the governor wanted to serve Sindh and to see it clean and prosperous. He rejected the claim about any conspiracy being hatched at the Governor House. “PPP should give up such fears, whatsoever,” he added.

He said the federal government wanted quality education and a strong sanitation system in this province.

“I fail to understand what kind of special powers Murtaza [Wahab] wants to know about; I have never thought of such things,” he said.

He said he wanted to make it abundantly clear that the Governor House was not part of any change in Sindh [which was being orchestrated] “nor do I want to become part of any such process”. He said if anyone was feeling an in-house change was in the making, then he should look into his own house. Neither the prime minister nor the president or anyone else talked to him about such a change as there was no such consideration or planning on the part of the PTI, he added.

The governor said he had raised objections to the PPP’s police bill because he believed that if any institution had to deliver, then it would have to be made autonomous, be it the police or any other department. He said Khyber Pakhtun­khwa’s model of digitised registration of FIR could be replicated in Sindh.

Governor Ismail said he wanted Sindh, being the largest revenue-generating province of the country, to get its due share [in resources]. “I’m ready to fight for Sindh’s rights but for this, both governments would have to work together”.

He said Sindh government’s participation in the completion of all federal projects was essentially required.

He said he had requested the chief minister to talk to the [top] party leadership and support the projects the PM wanted to execute in Sindh. He said he was awaiting the CM’s response.

He observed that the CPLC was efficiently working and coordinating with police because of reliable data storage.

He pointed out that people would easily approach police through the CPLC, whose data record would help police arrest kidnappers, mobile snatchers and dacoits.

Earlier, Governor Imran Ismail inaugurated ‘Prime Minister’s Kamyab Naujawan Progra­mme’ at a ceremony held at the Mehran Uni­versity of Engineering and Technology (MUET) in Jamshoro. Speaking at the ceremony, he said youths would be provided loans of Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 to establish their small businesses.

MUET Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Aslam Uqaili and Kamyab Naujawan Progra­mme’s focal person Shahzad Gul also spoke.

He said youths always played a dominant role in the country’s development.

They did not get opportunities in past to prove their abilities, therefore, many of them preferred to settle abroad. He confidently said that the programme would change the country’s destiny.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2019