KOTRI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf will form next government in Sindh after 2023 elections and Imran Khan will return as the Prime Minister.

He said at a workers convention in Sachal Ground in Kotri on Sunday that Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bialwal Bhutto-Zardari had been giving different dates for the ouster of the federal government but he would soon be dismayed after seeing election results.

He said that he wanted to know what Sindh government, which did not tire of talking about the 18th amendment, had done anything for people of Sindh. “Junior Zardari is least concerned whether a Sindhi lives or dies,” he said.

He highlighted his government’s projects and said under Kamyab Jawan Programme 19,700 youths in Sindh were provided training to enable them to become entrepreneurs and earn a living. Of them 1,349 youths belonged to Jamshoro alone, he said, adding that in addition 3,200 youths of Sindh were given Rs170m loans.

He said the federal government was launching Rs1.8 billion project for raising standard of higher education in Sindh University to enable it to accommodate more students and releasing Rs850m to Mehran University of Engineering and Technology for the same purpose.

He said that PPP had been opposing a bill in parliament for the establishment of a university in Hyderabad but this bill was going to be adopted in next joint session of parliament and Hyderabad would soon have a university.

He said that PTI government was launching Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway of Rs200bn while PPP government had not built even a kilometre of motorway in any part of the province during its six terms in province and four at the Centre.

He said that Nov 18 was the last date for submission of bids for the Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway and then Prime Minister Imran Khan would come to Hyderabad in next two to three months to lay foundation stone for this project.

About growing price hike, the PTI leader said that Punjab and Sindh produced more wheat than they needed. He asked Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah that in Punjab flour was sold for Rs55 per kilo but in Sindh it was being sold for Rs75 or Rs80 per kilo. “Who is pocketing the Rs20 to 25? The Sindh government replies millions of rupees worth wheat had been eaten by rats,” he said.

He said sarcastically that everybody knew in Sindh who controlled most sugar factories. Asif Zardari’s sugar mills were selling sugar for Rs150 and PPP was holding protests against Imran Khan. “You earn illegal money and then protest against it. If PPP thinks it can hoodwink people it is not going to happen now,” he said.

He believed when PPP would seek votes in 2023 election they would listen “mar su mar su vote na de su”. Pakistan Democratic Movement’s announcement of long march was ‘seasonal illness’, he said.

He said that Bialwal Bhutto had been announcing different dates for the ouster of the government but “I am declaring here that 2023 elections will be won by PTI and Imran Khan will become prime minister again. PTI is also going to form government in Sindh in 2023”.

Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh termed Murad Ali Shah as ‘qatil-e-aala’ in the backdrop of Nazim Jokhio’s murder. The chief minister hailed from Jamshoro where policemen were caught selling charas in mobile vans and then the culprits hid themselves in Chief Minister’s House, he said.

He told Asad Umar that federal government’s officers from Pakistan Administrative Services and Police Services of Pakistan posted in Jamshoro had become millionaires. The federal government should hold them accountable, he said.

DADU: Federal Minister Asad Umar said that Sindh government did not do anything for public during Covid-19 pandemic while federal government vaccinated 20 million people in Sindh and the provincial government did not inoculate even a single person against the coronavirus. Murad Ali Shah had said at the time he would close businesses even though it led to starvation of people, he said.

How ironical that most sugar mills in Sindh belonged to Asif Ali Zardari but PPP leaders were protesting against hike in sugar price, he said and added that people of Sindh would not vote PPP to power in 2023 general election.

Sheikh said that people who filmed injustices with their cell phones should now get their lives ensured because it could result in their death. Nazim Jokhio was one such person who got killed while making videos while the Sindh government was supporting the feudal lord involved in the murder, he said.

Imran Khan had announced health card in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but Sindh government had not given anything to Sindh where schools were closed but desks were purchased at high prices, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2021