KARACHI: Accusing the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government in Sindh of corruption and incompetence, Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that its tactics to use employment as a political bribe came at a heavy cost as 58 per cent of the total provincial budget for fiscal year 2021-22 was meant for salaries of over half-a-million government employees.

Speaking at a press conference here at his party’s Pakistan House headquarters, Mr Kamal condemned PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for “crying out loud” that Sindh contributed 70 per cent revenue to the national exchequer but failing to acknowledge the fact that Karachi alone gave “99pc” of that 70pc of revenue.

He said that the CM, who also holds portfolio of finance, did not earmark sufficient funds for development in the province, particularly Karachi, as out of Rs1.85 trillion, only Rs83bn was allocated for the local governments of the entire province in the budget.

‘Sindh govt made 250,000 recruitments on fake domicile of urban Sindh’

Explaining the reason behind this neglect, he said that 58pc of the provincial budget was meant for 500,000 government employees and only 42pc of it was for the total population of Sindh.

He said Punjab had been spending 33pc of its total budget on employees although its population and the size of government employees were much higher than the population of Sindh and the number of government employees.

‘Lava is brewing in urban Sindh’

Accompanied by PSP president Anis Kaimkhani, Mr Kamal accused the PPP government of using government employment as a political tool and said that in the recent past the government made 250,000 fresh recruitments but none of them genuinely possessed the domicile of Karachi and Hyderabad as most of the people got jobs on fake domicile of urban Sindh.

He said that Mr Bhutto-Zardari never spoke in favour of the people of Karachi, while the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf also left the people of the metropolis at the mercy of the provincial government.

He warned that the lava was not only brewing in Karachi and Hyderabad due the injustices of the PPP and the neglect of the PTI, but it was ready to explode anytime. “The federal government should come forward and heal the plight of urban Sindh,” he added.

He said if the Supreme Court had decided to demolish all encroachments in Karachi, it should go first for the Sindh government which was the ‘root cause’ of all illegal constructions.

The PSP chief said that the chief justice of Pakistan had ordered for the demolition of Nasla Tower, houses along Gujjar and Orangi nullahs and shops at Aladdin Park.

He was of the view that the buyers should not be punished for the crime of builders, government institutions and corrupt officials.

He urged the apex court to reconsider its decision with regard to demolition of Nasla Tower.

MQM protests ‘corrupt postings’

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Wednesday staged a demonstration in front of the offices of district municipal corporation-Central in protest against posting of ‘corrupt’ officers from the interior of Sindh.

Senior leader and MQM’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Kanwar Naveed Jameel said that the ‘biased’ Sindh government adopted a new way to sideline local officials as it had been bringing “incompetent and corrupt” officials from interior of Sindh and giving them posting in local councils.

He said that these officials had indulged in massive corruption as those given posting in the health department were either selling vaccine to private hospitals or issuing certificates without vaccination by taking bribes.

He said the MQM-P was not against Sindhis but it was the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government that wanted to pit Sindhis and Mohajirs against each other.

He asked why the provincial government was not constructing roads, lifting garbage from the city and ending sewerage problems of Karachi.

Assuring his full support to the employees of DMC-Central, he warned the deputy commissioner-Central, the administrator of DMC-Central and others not to provoke them as they would never compromise on their legitimate right by accepting any “outsider”.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2021