KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said his government was ready to hold local government elections in the province, but constituencies were to be delimited after the approval of 2017 census.

“The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has to decide about Census 2017, but I have heard that the PTI government, on the demand of their coalition partners [MQM], has decided to conduct the census afresh in 2023,” he added.

The chief minister said this while talking to the media along with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail at Mazar-i-Quaid.

To a question, the chief minister said that according to the Constitution, delimitation of constituencies were to be held after every census.

Rejects rumours about differences between him and the governor

Replying to a question, Mr Shah said that an ordinance under which twin islands off Karachi’s coast were taken over by the federal government had lapsed and now the issue was “over”.

To another question about the administrative control of three hospitals of Karachi — Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and National Institute of Child Health — he said that he had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the presence of the Sindh governor at Governor House.

“The prime minister was of the view that the provincial government was capable enough to run these hospitals efficiently and had also admitted that the federal government could not control them [hospitals] from Islamabad,” he said.

The chief minister requested the federal government to withdraw its decision of running these three hospitals through the Boards of Governors and let the provincial government continue their administrative control.

As for the protest of headmasters who had passed a test conducted by the IBA-Sukkur, he said that the courts had decided that the regularisation of headmasters would be made through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

But sorry to say, neither these headmasters are appearing in the commission exams nor going back to their schools,” he said, adding that their contract was extended by the provincial cabinet.

He urged the headmasters to stop protests and appear before the commission for their regularisation.

Centre’s rotation policy termed unilateral

Replying to a question about the rotation (transfer/posting) policy of the federal government, the CM said that there was an agreement between the federal and the provincial governments about transfer/posting of federal officers in the province.

He said that mutual understanding between the federal and the provincial governments was mandatory for posting or transfer of a federal officer in or from the province under that agreement.

“This unilateral rotation policy initiated by the federal government to call the services of some of the PSP and DMG officers back to the federal government would create shortage of officers in Sindh,” he said.

To a question about the provincial government’s coordination with the federal government, Mr Shah said some development issues had cropped up in the city, therefore a coordination committee was constituted which was doing its work properly.

He brushed aside the impression that there were differences between him and the governor. “We meet over a cup of tea off and on, but we do not release the news in the media,” he said with the governor endorsing it.

Paying rich tribute to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Mr Shah said that it was the vision of the Father of the Nation that he announced equal rights for the minorities just after creation of Pakistan.

“Our minorities enjoy equal rights and opportunities in the country, whereas minorities in India are being suppressed,” he said.

He also talked about atrocities against people of Kashmir and Palestine and expressed solidarity with them.

Earlier, the chief minister along with the governor laid floral wreath on the mazar and offered fateha.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2021