KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh has described the recently held conference in which political leaders were invited to discuss problems of masses as ‘a political gimmick’ of Sindh chief minister, asking him why after 11 years he had felt the need for remembering the pressing issues of Karachi.

“Is it because his government is about to end?” he asked and said at present whole Sindh including Karachi was suffering from a severe water shortage.

Mr Sheikh, who was addressing a press conference here on Sunday at the party office Insaf House along with PTI-MPAs Khurrum Sher Zaman and Adil Ansari, said similarly Provincial Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani was also carrying out a ‘topi-drama’ with innocent children of Thar amid their deaths.

Haleem Adil says Sindh govt will end soon

He said that the biggest water filter plant of Asia, which was installed in Thar, had failed to deliver due to ‘corrupt’ practices of the PPP rulers.

He said the water being supplied from the filter plant was so contaminated that Minister Saeed Ghani and his team members who visited the plant were not ready to drink the water from this plant.

He claimed that during one year more than 570 children had died in Thar “due to lack of medical facilities”.

Replying to a question, Mr Sheikh said Sindh media adviser had become an adviser on ‘disinformation’.

Referring to the withdrawal of the federal government notification about taking over the control of three major Sindh hospitals, the PTI leader said that three months ago Sindh Minister Azra Pechoho called on Pakistan President Arif Alvi and requested that the three major government hospitals of Karachi, which were taken over by the federal government, were transferred back to the Sindh government.

The president granted her request, but now the PPP was misleading the masses that it had snatched these hospitals from the federal government, he added.

Recalling the background of the taking over control of the three major hospitals of Karachi by the federal government, he said that these hospitals were handed over to the centre on the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“Due to corruption of Sindh rulers the NICVD is under burden of Rs10 billion loans. The NICH is also in a bad shape. In Civil Hospital Karachi, the MRI machine is not operating.”

He asked the CM who was running the hospitals of Sehwan and Jhangara and who was running the hospital in constituency of Bibi Faryal Talpur.

The PTI leader asked why 111 health centres of Sindh had been given to the non-governmental organisation Integrated Health Services and claimed that during the past 10 years Sindh had suffered a corruption of over Rs957 billion while the Rs397 billion budget simply lapsed due to non-utilisation of funds.

Replying to a question Haleem Adil said PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz showed a video of a person who was wanted in 14 cases and the ‘sad’ face of Shehbaz Sharif during this press conference revealed who actually led the PML-N.

The PTI leader said Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was delivering speeches in Dera Ghazi Khan and posing him as a supporter of Pashtuns and asked where Mr Bilawal-Zardari was when SSP Rao Anwar was “killing Pashtuns in Karachi”.

He advised Mr Bilawal to visit Larkana and Ratodero where widespread AIDS was killing innocent children and ask the provincial government of his party why these children were not getting proper medical facilities.

He said in Ratodero there were so far 903 children suffering from AIDS, but still a treatment centre for them was yet to be made functional.

“Today some provincial ministers have gone to Ghotki and we will file a petition for their disqualification.”

He said Sindh rulers did a record corruption in irrigation, food and other departments and claimed that a corruption of Rs100 billion was made in purchase of wheat alone.

Similarly the education sector in Sindh was totally in shambles, he added and said that the PPP government would soon end and all corrupt politicians would go to jail.

Karachi water crisis

MPA Khuram Sher Zaman said Karachi was facing a severe water shortage and now the Sindh government was seeking help from a former mayor to resolve the water issue of the megacity.

He said despite spending billions of rupees Karachiites were being supplied with sewage-mixed drinking water.

He said on July 11 Prime Minister Imran Khan would visit Karachi.

On the occasion he will request him to ask NAB to take action on all corruption cases and references, he added.

He claimed that the Sindh government had totally failed to deliver as not only Karachi, but other towns like Badin, Thatta and Sukkur were also facing severe water shortages.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2019