LARKANA: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday said he had conveyed to the Election Commission of Pakistan his government’s intention of holding local bodies elections in the province in February or March.

“We are ready after legislation regarding LG elections. The PPP will form next government in Sindh as we have done everything in the interest of the province,” Mr Shah said while talking to media persons at the mausoleum of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh where he laid wreaths and offered fateha.

Says Zardari won’t attend Benazir’s death anniversary event today

He said Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had called a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee in the first week of January. He said the health of PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari did not permit him to participate in the death anniversary event of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27 in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) defeat in the local government polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said it was the result of people’s disapproval of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s policies, adding that the people’s reaction could be gauged from the volume of responses they had accorded to Asif Ali Zardari during his recent visits.

In reply to a question, CM Shah did not rule out the possibility of talks with various parties but said coalition with them in the past was a bitter experience. He said the PPP was ready to work with any party which served Sindh’s interests.

He said Imran Khan could better answer why the PTI chose to form an alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

About Green Line bus service, the chief minister said the Sindh government had also extended financial assistance to the project and provided land after amending laws in this regard as it was in the interest of Sindh. He said the federal government had in 2018 proposed that if the Sindh government distanced itself from the project, the Centre would complete it within three months, but till 2021 it was incomplete.

Mr Shah said the PTI government had destroyed the country’s economy and people could hardly afford to have meals twice a day.

MNA Ramesh Lal, Naseeban Channa, PPP leader Shagufta Jumani and Larkana commissioner and deputy commissioner were present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021