HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has criticised the federal government for levying fuel adjustment charges on power consumers and said that Sindh government’s representative in the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had registered its protest over it.

He was speaking to the media after attending a programme held in his ancestral village, Wahur, in Jamshoro district, on Monday to observe his mother’s 13th death anniversary.

Mr Shah said the recent increase in the electricity tariff was a burden on consumers. He said the fuel adjustment charges should have been borne by federal government, and not consumers.

Ever since the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was installed, the country had been facing multifaceted crises, he observed, and pointed out that sugar and flour crises had hit people hard and now the fertiliser crisis was affecting growers and the agriculture sector. He said it (federal government) was incompetent and this was now being conceded by its own people. This government must be ousted, he added. He said PTI had already suffered a defeat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LG election and would face the same fate in the local bodies elections in Punjab and other provinces.

Referring to opposition parties’ campaign against the recent amendments to the Sindh local government law, the chief minister said that holding peaceful protest was every citizen’s right and, therefore, the provincial government would not stop anyone from exercising his right.

He noted that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Grand Democratic Alliance were jointly running a protest campaign while Jamaat-i-Islami was holding its separate drive on the same issue. None of them, he added, had any proposals that could improve the LG law. He insisted that through the recent amendments, the ruling PPP had made LGs better and stronger.

In reply to a question, CM Shah said that the Hyderabad DIG had been directed to maintain law and order in Sehwan while steps were being taken to ensure complete peace in the entire province. He acknowledged the sacrifices rendered by police officers and personnel in this regard, and said that salaries in Sindh’s police department were at a par with its counterparts in other provinces.

Answering another question, the CM said that PPP was among the few major parties constituting the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). He said some component parties did not follow the points that had provided the basis for its formation and that’s why the alliance suffered a blow. He said PPP had recommended that the en-mass resignations from elected houses should be the last option and its stance later proved right.

Ministers Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Imtiaz Shaikh, MNA Sikandar Rahupoto, MPA Saleh Mohammad Shah and other PPP leaders were present.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2022