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LARKANA: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has hailed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s intention to bring back to the country the looted public money stashed in foreign bank accounts and said “we have no objection if he brings reforms in the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency”.
The chief minister told reporters after paying respects at Bhuttos’ mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on Monday that if the federal government remained sincere and cooperative with Sindh “then surely we will reciprocate”.
He said that all the steps the prime minister was to take should be driven by his avowed intention to set things right in the country and raise standard of people’s lives.
He criticised Imran Khan for taking in his cabinet what he called NAB-tainted personalities and advised him to better begin charity at home. The prime minister’s address to the nation was mostly a repeat of what he had been saying in public meetings all along. He failed to cover vital national issues of foreign policy, China Pakistan Economic Corridor and energy issues, he said.
‘We have no objection if he brings reforms in NAB and FIA’
Mr Shah said the provincial government would continue to fight for Sindh’s rights like its share in water, National Finance Commission award and 70 per cent contribution by the province to the federal divisible pool though it was former federal government which neglected Sindh.
He said the prime minister promised to grant rights to provinces and said “we hope he will fulfil his promise”. His predecessors Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi too had made similar promises but unfortunately their promises did not see the light of day, he said.
He expressed gratitude to people of Sindh for reposing trust in PPP in 2018 election in ever greater numbers and the party leadership had once again entrusted him the responsibility to administer affairs of the province. “I shall try my best to come up to the expectations of the party leadership and people and serve them better than before,” he said.
He pointed out “difficulties” the PPP faced in general election and said the party was expecting to win 86 seats of Sindh Assembly but it secured only 76.
Sindh’s law and order conditions had improved to a great extent and peace reigned across the length and breadth of the province. The Sindh government would focus on water, education and healthcare issues as “we will have to protect peoples’ rights”, he said.
Earlier, the chief minister arrived at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto along with members of his cabinet and advisers including Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Mohammad Ismail Rahu, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, Saeed Ghani, Shehla Raza, Kishori Lal, Sardar Mohammad Bux Khan Mahar, Murtaza Wahhab and others. They laid wreaths on the graves of Bhuttos and offered fateha.
Local PPP leaders Abdul Fatah Bhutto, Aijaz Leghari, Nooruddin Abro, Khair Mohammad Shaikh, Ghulam Mustafa Leghari and others welcomed the chief minister and his cabinet members and presented them gifts of Ajrak and Sindhi cap.
Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018
