SUKKUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the Sindh government will not hold any talks with centre over the promulgation of presidential ordinance on islands and coast as it is guarding its properties well.

The chief minister told media persons in Jacobabad on Wednesday that locals were more entitled to claim ownership of the islands, hence the provincial government would never hand over its land to the federal government.

He said that his cabinet too had rejected the ordinance as “unconstitutional and unlawful”.

The Sindh government did not give any no-objection certificate to the centre to go ahead with its development plan for islands, he said.

He said that federal Minister Ali Zaidi had written a letter to the provincial government seeking permission for developing the island and “we asked him to bring the plan and discuss it. Let’s see if there is a legal way (for doing this) for the sake of betterment of locals”.

About police force, he said the force had sacrificed their lives in the line of duty, combating crimes and fighting terrorists and dacoits in encounters for maintaining law and order.

He said the Sindh government had provided best facilities to its policemen. The law and order conditions were the worst in 2007 when vehicles had to be moved in convoys and escorted by police mobile vans from Sukkur to Jacobabad but Pakistan Peoples Party government changed it for better with the help of Pak Army, Rangers and police, he said.

Earlier, the chief minister offered condolence to his Adviser on Prisons Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani over the death of his mother. He was accompanied by ministers Mir Shabbir Ali Bijarani, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Fida Hussain Dero and Imdad Ali Pitafi, MPAs Malik Asad Sikandar and Mumtaz Jakhrani, DC Ghazanfar Ali Qadri, SSP Mohammad Tariq Nawaz and local party leaders.

The CM later arrived in Muhammadpur where he offered condolence to a PPP leader Sardar Mohammad Panah Odho over the death of his mother.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2020