SUKKUR: Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Syed Mustafa Kamal has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to devolve powers down to union councils to empower the man on the street so that he can get all basic facilities at his doorstep.

Kamal said at a press conference at Sukkur Press Club on Friday that his party supported transfer of powers to the lowest level. He had “courage” to speak the truth in Karachi at a time when a man was issuing death sentences for uttering truth. But now Allah was “killing such persons by degrees” who massacred innocent human beings, he said.

It was very unfortunate that despite being part of every government and being in power for a long period, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan failed to rid Karachi of its chronic problems and make it into an international metropolis, he said.

He said that MQM used Mohajir card at the time of seeking votes and PPP knew that MQM could not separate even a street from Sindh; still both parties used Sindhi and Mohajir cards in connivance with each other only to befool people and rob them of their votes. MQM could not live without government even for a second because its leaders, from mayor down to councillor, were steeped in corruption, he alleged.

Kamal said that unfortunately, Sindh was not being given its due share in National Finance Commission Award. With millions of children out of school and 11,000 ghost schools illiteracy was increasing in the province by each day, he said, adding “we are destroying ourselves with our own hands. We don’t need any outside enemy”.

He said that he gave utmost priority to service of people. Their opponents were saying after PSP’s defeat in election that the party had been wiped out of existence. But his party proved their claims wrong and now the rivals themselves were facing disintegration, he said. He said that politics in Sindh involved caste, creed and language and friends and foes were made on these lines. But his party was struggling for eradicating this sort of politics.

Flanked by Anis Qaimkhani, Ashfaq Mangi and Ghulam Mustafa Pirzada, he said he was proud of being a Mohajir but at the same time he was thankful to Sindhi brethren who provided shelter to Mohajir families arriving in Sindh after independence. He had great respect for them and the land where his elders were buried. He too would like to be buried in Sindh, he said.

Kamal said that people were facing miserable conditions in Sindh under long rule of PPP as people were deprived of even basic facilities of drinking water and drainage when they were already groaning under unbearable inflation, poverty and unemployment.

He said that some nations of the world had landed on the moon but in Sindh hundreds of people were still falling victim to dog bite and surprisingly there was no anti-rabies vaccine to save peoples’ lives. Sindh government could not even stop deaths of infants from preventable diseases in Thar, which was simply shameful, he said.

He said that he and his companions could have ideological differences with others but they had no enmity towards anyone. He said in answer to a question that he was not making hollow announcements like Imran Khan who had ample experience in running a cancer

hospital but no clue how to run a government while he (Mustafa Kamal) had experience administering Karachi.

He said that Karachi made it to 70 big cities of the world through “record development works” carried out without corruption. He spent Rs300 billion in Karachi during his tenure as mayor but did not indulge in corruption of even a rupee. Anyone could level graft allegations on anybody these days but no one could prove the charge against him, he said.

He said that accountability process was compromised under present government. Corruption cases lodged against supporters of federal government were not being processed while all cases against opposition leaders were being pursued with swiftness.

About reference filed against him by National Accountability Bureau, Kamal said the bureau field a reference against even a person like him who did not own any property. No place was encroached in Karachi during his tenure, all spaces were given on lease, he claimed.

He said that the state should act like a mother and it should provide alternative places before dismantling homes. Thousands of structures were bulldozed during his tenure as well but all the occupants were provided alternative places and monetary compensation to help them arrange their shelters, he said.

He advised the government to take preventive measures to prevent encroachment of land in future.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2020