SUKKUR: Sindh Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Monday visited Sukkur and Larkana and held meetings with senior officials of his department to discuss issues relating to solid waste management and ongoing development schemes in the two districts.

He also inaugurated a new building built on the premises of the Sukkur Press Club.

Speaking to the media after the inauguration ceremony, Mr Shah said the provincial government was ready to hold local government elections in February or March next year but only after the controversy over the 2017 census results was settled and Sindh’s reservations were addressed.

He also criticised federal government’s institutions for having made no efforts so far to address people’s genuine issues. “The PTI government is busy making tall claims and doing nothing for public welfare,” he said, adding that they were interested in running government’s affairs through ordinances.

He said such reservations were also expressed by other political parties and non-political stakeholders in Sindh.

Asked about a way to settle the controversy, the minister said the matter should be brought to the parliament and a schedule for the fresh census be given so as to complete the whole process before the next general elections.

Answering a question about his department’s plan to address the issue of aggravating unclealiness in Sukkur city, Mr Shah said his department was set to introduce an effective solid waste management programme very soon. He held out the assurance that the city would get rid of litter and waste soon.

“We [ministers and officials] have been visiting UCs as per the directives of our party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari so ascertain the problems being faced by ordinary people and to get them resolved at the earliest,” he said.

He also deplored that the federal government was blaming Sindh for the hike in wheat and flour prices although the rates had gone high in all provinces. “Federal ministers are shamelessly blaming others for their own failures,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said the top PPP leadership found Barrister Arsalan Islam Shaikh as the best choice for the slot of mayor of Sukkur.

LARKANA: During his visit to Larkana, LG Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah told newsmen that a tender to award garbage lifting contract to Chinese firm had been finalised, PPI adds.

Mr Shah said that under a solid waste management system, garbage disposal work would be started in Karachi, Hyderabad, Rohri and Larkana to keep these cities neat and clean.

The firm would soon start its work to collect solid waste in a door-to-door operation on a daily basis and dispose it of at the designated sites on the outskirts of the city.

Reiterating his party’s reservations over introduction of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), the minister said that the PTI government had come to power thanks to the RTS system and now it wanted to introduce a similar system using EVMs so that it could retain powers. The opposition parties would not let its dream come true, he added.

He claimed that the EVMs had already been abandoned by several countries but were being imposed on Pakistan. He asserted that all stakeholders’ consent was necessary to switch to any new voting system. They would not accept any such decision imposed through ordinance, he said.

Earlier, the minister, along with PPP chairman’s political secretary Jameel Soomro, presided over a meeting of Larkana division’s public health engineering and rural development departments at commissioner’s office to review progress of ongoing development schemes.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021