MIRPURKHAS: Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, former Sindh chief minister and leader of the Grand Democratic Alliance, has said that Sindh government is deliberately ignoring prime minister’s directive to raid godowns of hoarders because it will reveal ugly nexus between provincial ministers and government officers for prolonging artificial shortage of edibles and making windfall profits.

Arbab said at a Meet the Press programme at the press club here on Wednesday night that provincial ministers, their frontmen and supporters were involved in sugar and flour crisis and nagging shortage of other essential commodities in the province.

He demanded the federal government’s agencies including Federal Investigation Agency should conduct raids on suspected warehouses of hoarders in the province, recover stocked wheat, sugar and other commodities and bring them into the market to maintain their prices at a reasonable level. The federal government should deal with the hoarders strictly and ensure legal action against them, he said.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was a genuine leader and a true Muslim who oftentimes recited shahada and quoted verses from the Quran while explaining real Islam to westerners in his speeches at international forums.

He said that he believed the prime minister was on the right path and was taking correct measures to strengthen national economy that required drastic actions, merciless eradication of corruption and strict accountability of all the corrupt elements regardless of their social status and political clout.

‘Sindh govt ignoring PM’s directive to raid hoarders’ warehouses’

However, he said, opponents of the prime minister were creating hurdles in his way and were even publishing negative advertisements against the government but Imran Khan was calmly and honesty working on his plan to defeat the current economic crisis.

Arbab said that massive corruption by provincial ministers and functionaries had pushed all institutions to the verge of total destruction and raised poverty to alarming levels, forcing most of the poor but honest people to turn beggars to make both ends meet.

He said in reply to questions that the agriculture sector which contributed 70 per cent to national economy had also been devastated, particularly in Sindh, as farmers and landlords had been deprived of reasonable price of their farm products thanks to wrong policies of Sindh government.

He said that Mirpurkhas was a divisional headquarters which deserved to have a university of its own. The government should immediately establish a varsity in Mirpurkhas to redress sense of deprivation among the city’s students and their parents.

Arbab said that during his tenure as chief minister he had completed several big projects in the division that included under-construction district headquarters hospital, a mango exhibition hall, a food laboratory, a number of main roads and link roads in Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar districts to facilitate people.

He said that GDA had decided to contest the provincial assembly seat in Umerkot that had fallen vacant after the death of MPA Syed Ali Mardan Shah. The alliance’s contestant would hopefully win the seat with the support of masses, he said.

He appealed to people to reject the PPP government and its candidate in the by-election and help the alliance come forward to make future of their children safe.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2020