KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday made it clear that he was answerable only to the people of the province, who always reposed their confidence in the Pakistan Peoples Party by giving it their mandate.

He said this while addressing an open kutchery at the Meerut Housing Society in Ahs­a­n­abad, located on the outskirts of Karachi.

“We are not showing our performance through press conferences, tall claims and pack of lies but our performance is evident from the results of the elections we have been winning one after another with more and more majority and set a record of winning all the by-elections,” he said.

He said that some of the federal ministers and representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led federal government were shamelessly asking for the accounts of Rs18 billion given to the provincial government by the centre during the last three years. “But, I am not answerable to them. I am only answerable to the people of the province.”

‘I am answerable to people, not to PTI govt, regarding Rs18bn spending’

Lashes out at PTI govt

Mr Shah said that the PTI government had collected Rs9,000bn from Karachi during the last three years but what they had given in return to Sindh, except short payments of Rs370bn from its share, rendering 25,000 people, including 1,650 of Pakistan Steel Mills, jobless.

The CM said that he was happy if the federal government or any other agency was coming to Sindh to undertake development works.

“We will welcome them, but it doesn’t mean that the federal government has given schemes of roundabout beautification, sewerage schemes of neighbourhoods, water supply schemes of a locality and executing them through their MPAs,” he said.

He said that the federal government had completely failed to show an appropriate growth in the national economy and they missed their tax collection targets.

Talking about revenue collection by his government, Mr Shah said that the provincial tax receipts during 2020-21 were Rs128.52bn, which showed an increase of 28 per cent than the last year. He said this year the collection target had been set at Rs154.94bn. He added that during the same year the collection of sales tax on services was at Rs135bn and non-tax receipts were Rs49.87bn. “If our three-year performance in terms of revenue receipts is calculated, they showed a 14 per cent increase,” he said.

Mr Shah said that in order to develop the mass transit system Rs7.640bn had been allocated in the provincial budget.

“We are procuring 250 diesel hybrid electric buses under the Sindh Intra-District Peoples Buses Services Project for Rs.6.476bn,” he said. He added that the Red Line and Blue Line projects of Rs35bn and Rs28bn, respectively, were being launched within the next few months.

Under the Karachi package, 132 schemes had been completed for Rs43.068bn.

Complaints against police, water shortage

The chief minister invited people to lodge their complaints. Most of the complaints people raised were against prolonged power outages, encroachments, water and sewerage issues, police highhandedness, illegal bus and truck stands.

Some people requested the CM to order regularisation of their villages.

The CM directed the Karachi commissioner to show zero-tolerance against cases of land-grabbing.

Earlier, the chief minister inaugurated Tariq Ghauri Road constructed with a cost of Rs483m at Ahsanabad, Scheme 33.

Provincial ministers Imtiaz Sheikh, Sardar Shah, Nasir Shah, Sajid Jokhio, Shahla Raza, Karachi Administrator and Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab, MNAs and MPAs from districts Malir and West were also present.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2021