HYDERABAD: Governor Sindh Imran Ismail has said that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah takes everything the centre does about the province personally and so is recent act of transfer of federal government officers, which was made under a set rotation policy meant for entire country and not for Sindh alone.

He was speaking to journalists at Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf regional secretariat on Saturday. “The rotation policy of officers’ transfers is for entire Pakistan but Sindh chief minister says that Sindh is being discriminated against. This policy has nothing to do with Sindh as it is not Sindh specific,” he said.

“The federal government is empowered to post its officers wherever it likes. It is federal government’s legal right,” he said and disagreed with CM’s view that the federal government was bound to consult with the chief minister in this regard.

He said that electronic voting machine (EVM) would address all complaints about delay in announcement of results in election and rigging. No one would now be able to say that the results were withheld or changed, he said.

He said that only those parties were opposing the use of technology in election who believed they would lose in fair election. Only ‘thappa mafia’ felt at losing end, he said.

Governor said earlier while addressing party workers at the secretariat that Imran Khan had promised to establish Hyderabad University and only Pakistan Peoples Party had opposed it. “I never seen anyone opposing a university,” he said.

He said that 7,000 schools were being closed instead of providing better teaching staff and academic environment in Sindh. People of Sindh were being deprived of their right to education, he said.

He said that PTI would again form government in centre as well as in Sindh and the party would get its mayor elected from among people of Hyderabad.

PTI leader Haleem Adil Sheikh said that Hyderabad would get mega projects after the prime minister had fulfilled his promise of establishment of Hyderabad University.

He said that party leadership would resolve problems of deduction of Rs2,000 from cash handouts under Ehsaas programme of federal government. Sindh government failed to ensure transparency in the programme’s management, he said.

The governor told journalists before leaving for Tando Allahyar that Sindh’s rulers did not want to provide education to people as they wanted to keep children illiterate and work as their haris.

He said that Sindh needed change and federal government was restrained from providing health cards to people of Sindh. “Does Sindh government not like design of health card?”, he said. He said that kissan card and Ehsas grant was being given by federal government.

Haleem Adil Sheikh said that PTI workers had to fight a battle in Sindh. Sindh’s rulers were not allowing PTI government to distribute health cards in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2021