KARACHI: Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh along with other party MPAs on Wednesday lashed out at Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for giving “false, fabricated and baseless statistics” while presenting the fiscal budget of the province.

Addressing a press conference at his office in Sindh Assembly building, the PTI leader claimed that their decision to register a peaceful protest during the session was their democratic right to expose the “corrupt and wicked” rulers of Sindh, who according to him, had failed to provide any relief to the people of the province.

He said the Sindh government had failed to carry out repair work of damaged infrastructure in many areas despite having more than enough funds at their disposal.

He claimed that the PPP rulers in Sindh had crossed all limits of “loot and plunder” and caused widespread destruction and devastation in the province.

Opposition leader says they would not allow PPP rulers to further ‘ruin and destroy’ Karachi

Haleem Sheikh reiterated that the PPP rulers in Sindh received Rs8,912 billion over the past 13 years, but they had done nothing for the people of the province.

More than 80 per cent of the amount was released to the Sindh government by the federal government, he said.

Mr Sheikh added that PPP rulers spent Rs1,646bn on different so-called development schemes while the rest was lavishly spent on “merrymaking, dance parties and construction of palatial places”.

The “corrupt rulers” had committed malpractices and embezzlement of Rs7,226bn by showing the amount to have been spent on non-development schemes, he claimed, adding that those involved in such massive ‘scams’ would have to face accountability for their corrupt practices and depriving the people of the province of all basic amenities of life.

He said that Sindh chief minister had been holding keys of Sindh’s treasury for the past 13 years.

Murad Shah over past 13 years had “plundered” the public money of Sindh mercilessly, he claimed and asked him to stop “crying” over the schemes announced by the Imran Khan-led federal government for Sindh during the budget.

He said that according to the government documents, the Sindh government had spent Rs1,450bn on education, Rs1,768bn on health, Rs900bn on local government, Rs800bn on law and order and other departments but the ground realities from school buildings to hospitals and from overflowing gutters to the unabated killing of innocent policemen in encounters due to poor state of police vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, spoke contrary to their false claims.

“The dilapidated school buildings have been turned into cattle pens, hospitals of the province turned into slaughterhouses and big cities are inundated after light showers,” he remarked.

2,246 schemes in the doldrums

He said that “incompetent rulers” did not bother to spend even a single rupee on nearly 400 sanctioned schemes while they left as many as 2,246 schemes and projects across the province in the doldrums despite the fact that during past two years the sanctioned budgetary allocations could not be spent due to unknown reasons by the high-ups of the Sindh government.

He claimed that the Sindh government still had over Rs85bn in its kitty at a time when the financial year was nearing its end.

He said that the federal government had already earmarked amounts for different megaprojects, including a mega water scheme commonly known as K-IV water project, and many other schemes for Karachi.

The PTI leader said they would not allow PPP rulers to further “ruin and destroy” Karachi.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was very much interested in adding more lights to Karachi by launching more projects. He said that the Sindh government during the upcoming fiscal year would get Rs300bn more while last year they had received Rs700bn due to Covid pandemic from the federal government.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021