KARACHI: Federal Min­ister for Planning, Develop­ment and Special Initiatives Asad Umar claimed on Sunday that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had spent such a huge amount of funds in Sindh that it was unparalleled in the country’s history.

However, he said that the federal government had spent money on the people of the province and had not transferred it to the provincial government.

He said this in an apparent reference to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s recent letter to Prime Minis­ter Imran Khan in which the former has complained about alleged bias of the federal government to Sindh over development projects.

The chief minister has urged Prime Minister Khan to reconsider the proposed Public Sector Development Programme, terming it lopsided as it is “detrimental” to the interests of the people of Sindh. He has claimed that the province has been treated with “abject bias” since the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) came to power.

Responding to the chief minister’s assertion via a video message from Karachi, the federal minister said the CM would’ve got answers to his questions if he had waited for Monday’s (today) National Economic Council (NEC) meeting “but maybe he isn’t interested in answers and wanted to give a political statement”.

Mr Umar said if the allocations for federal projects in Sindh in the last three years of the previous government were compared to the incumbent government’s three years then there was an increase of more than 32 per cent.

“The amount allocated for projects in Sindh in PSDP 2021-22, which will be presented before the NEC on Monday and hopefully approved, is a record amount. Never before in Pakistan’s annual development programme have so many projects been set for Sindh.”

He alleged that the CM was “confused” and couldn’t differentiate between the people of the province and the provincial government.

“Chief minister sahib! you are definitely [a part of] Sindh’s government but you are not Sindh’s masses and we have to spend money on Sindh’s people, not the government,” Mr Umar said.

The federal minister claimed that previously funds given to the provincial government had been diverted to other purposes such as “accumulating properties and assets” instead of being spent on Sindh and the people of the province were aware about this.

He said that Prime Minister Khan had within one year of his government announced two historic development packages for Sindh which covered rural and urban areas with 18 districts being covered under the two packages.

Mr Umar said development projects of the federal government and other federal institutions in Sindh were worth more than Rs1,000 billion which would be spent in three years. “Never before has any federal government in history [of Pakistan] has spent so much money in Sindh,” he added.

“I want to satisfy Sindh’s masses that Imran Khan is not the prime minister of any region but the whole country and he does not do biased politics,” the federal minister said, adding that various projects had already been inaugurated in Sindh and work would now be carried out on them at greater speed.

“The people of Sindh will be served and no one will be allowed to come in the way.”

Mr Umar pointed out various major development projects under way in Sindh, such as K-IV, improvement of Karachi’s nullahs, Green Line bus rapid transit project, over Rs6 billion project for Sukkur Electric Supply Company, over Rs5bn project for Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, allocation of Rs8bn for Sindh’s universities and funds for different canals, small dams and other water projects.

He also talked about the motorway projects undertaken in the province and said the federal government had completed the Multan-Sukkur motorway project. He added that it was further spending a “vast amount” from the Viability Gap Fund on Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway.

He said the PTI government was spending a total of Rs300bn on motorway projects in Sindh despite not having a government there and questioned what the PPP had done for motorways during its previous tenures in the provincial and federal governments.

“They’ve (PPP) spent not a single rupee on constructing motorways. This government and party is asking questions from us on the NHA (National Highway Authority) projects.”

CM aide’s rejoinder

The CM’s adviser on law Murtaza Wahab, in his talk with Geo TV, said the CM had presented facts in his letter to the premier while Mr Umar had indulged in rhetoric and leveled allegations only. He pointed out that the Centre had earmarked only eight schemes for Sindh in the federal development programme.

He said it was unfortunate that the planning minister instead of presenting tangible facts gave a political statement.

He recalled that Green Line bus project was launched by PML-N government not by the PTI government.

Mr Wahab said they were happy if the Centre spent money in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but Sindh should also be given its due share as it generated 70 per cent revenue of the country.

He accused the federal government of committing corruption in procurement of fire tenders for Karachi and in Green Line bus project. He asked as to why the federal government took over two years to procure fire tenders for the city. He said there were reports of alleged corruption in the Green Line bus project and asked who its contractors were.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021