KARACHI: Sindh Chi­ef Minister Syed Mur­ad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that government officials on important positions had stopped working due to fear and insecurity.

In an oblique reference to the National Accountability Bureau, he said it had created “a wave of fear and insecurity” among the officers, many of whom now chose to remain without posting and those holding important positions preferred to not perform.

“This is a serious situation that has caused serious dent to service delivery,” he said while speaking at the graduation ceremony of 26th Mid-Career Management Course at the National Institute of Management (NIM) here.

Calls for increase in salaries of bureaucrats

He asked the officers to come out of the fear [of NAB] and start serving people without any stress and pressure.

He also asked the NIM to design such courses which inculcate confidence among fear-infested officers.

Pleading the case of bureaucrats for an upward review of their salaries, he said that the bureaucracy had considerably lower salary structure and perks if compared to people of the same merit in other sectors.

“Bureaucracy is the backbone of this country and they have to play their due role for the development of its people,” he said and appreciated NIM for offering excellent training programmes for capacity building of the bureaucracy.

He objected to the slogan “Say no to corruption” and said it “implies as if we all as a society and as a nation are corrupt.

“We have governance issues but with the establishment of good governance, corruption would automatically dwindle,” he added.

He termed 18th Amend­ment to the Constitution a great achievement of the then PPP government and said: “That was the time of reforms — the formula of seventh National Finance Commission award was changed for the first time in history and it paid the provinces abundantly.”

He said he was surprised to see that some people were now talking about scrapping the 18th Amendment.

Mr Shah urged the federal government to hand over the collection of sales tax on goods to provinces to collect on behalf of the federal government and the provincial governments, particularly Sindh and Punjab, were capable enough to enhance collection manifold.

Talking about Thar, Mr Shah urged the NIM administration to take their under-training officers to Thar to show them the work done by the provincial government. “We have improved overall lifestyle in Thar where people have started living in pukka [concrete] houses ... we have improved road infrastructure and created employment opportunities.”

‘Centre not giving Sindh’s due share’

Talking to media, the chief minister said the federal government was not giving due share of funds to Sindh.

“This year they have given Rs12bn less than the agreed amount,” he lamented.

Regarding Prime Min­ister Imran Khan’s speech in China, the chief minister said: “This was the same speech he had made in the National Assembly and had addressed to the nation.

“The prime minister delivered such a speech when Chinese refused to give him what he was expecting.”

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018