KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has stressed the need for avoiding a controversy on what he called irrelevant forums if the special court’s judgement in the high treason case against retired Gen Pervez Musharraf had flaws.

He also highlighted the need to reduce at once the emerging friction among all stakeholders saying “Pakistan is faced with serious issues of economy and governance and at this juncture the growing friction will be detrimental to the country.”

The chief minister was talking to the media after attending the graduation ceremony of the senior management course at the National Institute of Management here on Friday.

He said that political parties were capable enough to steer the country out of present quagmire. “The people of Pakistan authorise political parties by voting them to power to resolve their issues under their mandate,” he added.

Says PPP is against any kind of intervention against the Constitution

Responding to a question, Mr Shah said: “The Pakistan Peoples Party is against any kind of intervention which is against the Constitution and against the principles of democracy. We are a democratic party and we believe in democracy, which is evident from the fact that our leadership has sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy.”

The chief minister said if the judgement pronounced in the high treason case against Gen Musharraf had flaws there were relevant forums for its redress.

“We must avoid developing a controversy on irrelevant forums because the country [is] passing through a very critical phase,” he said.

Upcoming CCI meeting

Referring to the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) scheduled to be held on Dec 23, Mr Shah said: “There are various issues between provinces and the federation which the federal government has to resolve under Legislative List Part-II through CCI meetings.”

He added that the federal government addressed its important issues by holding a weekly meeting of the cabinet. Similarly, it had to convene the meetings of the CCI within or after every three months to resolve the issues of the province with the federation, he said.

The chief minister said he would attend the CCI meeting, where he would take up the issues of Sindh.

He said under Article 158 of the Constitution, the people of the province from where natural gas and oil were explored got the first and foremost right to use them.

“I have to establish it in the CCI,” he said and added that the other issues include recovery of Rs7 billion the federal government had deducted at source in 2016 and the “illegal and unconstitutional” permission for installation of a power plant on CJ Link Canal.

Mr Shah said that work on the Jamshoro-Sehwan road was going on at a snail’s pace though his government had paid 50 per cent of its cost over two years ago to the federal government.

To a question, the chief minister said that the Constitution was a federal and democratic document and the credit of giving a unanimous Constitution to this country went to late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Earlier, speaking at NIM’s graduation ceremony the chief minister said that the friction that had emerged among all the stakeholders needed to be reduced at once.

Mr Shah congratulated the officers and urged them to go out in the field with new spirit of service to the people of this province and the country, wherever they got their postings.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2019