HYDERABAD: Grand Demo­cratic Alliance (GDA) information secretary Sardar Rahim has said although time had not come to quit the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition at the Centre, it would be of no use for the

alliance to remain with the government if it got disappointed. He was expressing the alliance concern in the context of the government’s failure so far in providing any relief to the masses from inflation, price hike and certain deepening crises.

Sardar Rahim was addressing a press conference at the residence of senior Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) activist Bachal Shah here on Sunday evening. His other party colleagues including Abdul Karim Shaikh, Rafiq Magsi and Zafarullah Arain were also present.

The Sardar said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was scheduled to meet GDA chief Pir Sibghatullah Shah alias Pir Pagara, who also heads the PML-F, at 7pm on Monday (today) at the Kingri House in Karachi.

PM, Pir Pagara meet today in Karachi to sort out issues

He said the meeting was being held in the wake of the alliance’s reservations over PTI’s performance in Sindh. “We are in double jeopardy; on the one hand, we are faced with PPP for the last 12 years and, on the other, the federal government has not been able to provide any relief so far to the people of Sindh,” he said.

The Sindh government, he observed, was interested only in minting money through development projects. He also spoke of the provincial government’s ill-intentions in earmarking funds for the procurement of anti-rabies vaccine (ARV), and noted that the ARV was a normal thing that must be available at all government health facilities.

The health and education sectors in Sindh stood destroyed and people were fast losing patience over the provincial government’s performance. And now they were also getting disappointed with the PTI government at the Centre which had failed so far to provide any relief to the masses.

Sardar Rahim said the GDA had conveyed its concern to the PTI and also submitted a 15-point charter of demands pertaining to social and development issues of Sindh.

He said that federal government could not curb corruption in Sindh which, instead, had increased. Those accused of corruption cases were getting relief in the shape of bail, he noted.

In fact, he said, things were getting reversed after whatever actions against corruption were taken. “Unless corrupt are brought to justice, conditions in Sindh will not improve,” he added.

He made it clear that the GDA would discuss things politically with PTI because the alliance was not demanding anything for its own gain but was raising public issues. “We will try to convince the PTI government to pay attention to Sindh’s issues and will keep doing so,” he said.

Sardar Rahim said the GDA was willing to remain with the PTI government but it [PTI] would have to show some headway. He said the federal government should ensure provision of jobs to the people of Sindh in federal bodies as per the province’s quota; and oil and gas exploration companies should be asked to work for welfare of the population of their area of operation.

He was of the view that AIDS cases were reported in Larkana only because of reuse of syringes. He pointed out that the wheat crisis hit Sindh after government did not pay the support price to farmers for procurement of wheat crop and now an artificial crisis prevailed in which expensive wheat was being provided to flour mills and chakkis.

He regretted that PTI’s entire politics revolved around its slogan of curbing corruption but unfortunately a recent report hinted that corruption in the country had increased. He said government should field a strong prosecution team for pursuing corruption cases instituted by federal bodies.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020