ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Privatisation Mohammadmian Soomro on Wednesday stressed the need for setting up a provincial finance commission in order to ensure equitable distribution of resources among the under-privileged areas of provinces to bring them on a par with developed areas of the country.

Speaking at a press conference along with Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza, Mr Soomro asked for installation of a telemetry system to bring transparency in water distribution among the provinces, besides improving the system to overcome water shortages.

Lauding the steps taken by the National Economic Council, he said that the federal government had provided proper shares to all provinces and allocated abundant resources in its annual development agenda for under-developed areas of Sindh.

The minister further said that the government had equally increased provincial shares in the federal resources as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was a national party.

Minister calls for setting up of provincial finance commission

He claimed that Sindh had been provided its due share that would help in bringing improvement in health, education and infrastructure.

The PTI government had also initiated several developmental works in Karachi, he said, adding that the federal government believed in collaboration and coordination for the uplift of the people across the country.

Mr Soomro expressed concern over the deteriorating conditions of different civic amenities, including health, education and roads, in Sindh and called upon the provincial government to ensure use of national wealth in a transparent and judicious manner.

He also expressed concern over the increasing dog-bite and snake-bite cases in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana, besides the absence of anti-rabies and anti-venom in main hospitals, and called for ensuring availability of these vaccines to save precious lives.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Fehmida Mirza said that she was disappointed with the remarks of the Sindh chief minister and said that the Constitution stressed upon the uplift and development of the people of under-privileged areas of the country.

She said the National Economic Council was a constitutional body and it had been tasked with economic planning and policy formulation to ensure equitable distribution of resources to ensure development of all areas.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2021