Even the PPP co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, had also expressed his dissatisfaction over the dismal performance of the Sindh government, Mr Jam recalled.

The opposition leader said it was unfortunate that whenever the issues facing the masses were raised by the opposition benches, the government tended to save its skin by putting all the blame on its predecessors.

Mr Jam said that while people were craving for wheat flour as its price had gone beyond their reach, the government, instead of taking remedial measures by slashing its non-productive expenditure, was busy spending millions on holding cabinet meetings in different provincial capitals and throwing away the tax-payers’ hard-earned money on frequent visits to Dubai.

He said that millions of rupees could have been saved by holding meetings in the country and the funds could be better utilised in providing subsidy to the masses on wheat flour.

Mr Jam deplored that the province was facing a severe food crisis and the food minister was sitting abroad.

Rising prices

The opposition leader said that flour prices had increased by 58 per cent, prices of Basmati rice had gone up by 26 per cent, Irri rice by 46 per cent, Soybean oil by 8 per cent, rates of pulses had increased from 14 to 19 per cent, sugar by 28 per cent, onion by 119 per cent and the rates of potato had increased by 85 per cent.

Similarly, he added, prices of milk had been increased from Rs32 per litre to Rs43 a litre and that of ghee from Rs125 per kilo to Rs150 a kilo.

In April, he said, petrol was Rs53.78 per litre, diesel was available at Rs37.81 per litre and the rate of CNG was Rs33.50 per kilo but within two to three months the prices of petrol, diesel and CNG had shot to Rs75.77 per litre, Rs55.23 per litre and Rs47.25 per kilo respectively.

“Similar is the case with the tariffs of power and gas,” he said, adding that if the prices continued to move upwards in the similar manner, the situation would get even worse during Ramazan which was drawing closer.

Deteriorating law and order

Commenting on the law and order situation, he said that according to an estimate during the period between April 12, 2008 and July 14, 2008 as many as 595 people were killed, 152 committed suicide, and 61 became the victims of karo-kari and 125 incidents of armed robberies were reported.

He also said that there had been a complete breakdown of law and order in Lyari, which he described as a stronghold of the PPP in Karachi.In Karachi district alone 347 cars were snatched, 1,152 were stolen, 760 motorcycles were snatched while 2,483 were stolen, 6,006 cellphones were snatched while 8,331 were stolen and as many as 25 persons were kidnapped for ransom.

The opposition leader also countered the government claims of doing away with OPS (own-pay-and-scale) officials, pointing out that still 136 officials were working on an OPS basis in Thatta, Khairpur, Sanghar, Qambar Shahdadkot, Mirpurkhas, Shikarpur and Jacobabad.

Political victimisation

He said that the cases of Altaf Unnar, Sadaquat Ali Jatoi, Shirazi brothers, Ghaus Bux Mehar, and Abid Jatoi were glaring examples of political victimisation.

Mr Jam told newsmen that as many as 163 FIRs had been registered against political opponents in which 4,002 persons were implicated.

He said that the highest number of FIRs (63) had been registered in Khairpur in which 1,030 persons were implicated, followed by Thatta (62 FIRs) and Mithi/Umerkot (22 FIRs).

During the last 100 days, he said, the Sindh Assembly, comprising 168 members, had total sittings of 62 hours including budget sessions which lasted 55 hours. During the period Rs66 million was spent costing Rs1.064 million per hour to the exchequer.

During these proceedings, the opposition was denied its private members day and no motions, resolutions, adjournment motions from the opposition were admitted, he said.

He deplored that despite the fact that he was leader of the opposition he had not been provided with a chamber. Unfortunately, Mr Jam added, he was being forced to vacate the office which had been in his use since his tenure as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the previous government.

Agriculture sector

Mr Jam accused the government of adopting a non-serious attitude towards the agriculture sector. He said that despite announcements made by the chief minister so far neither a support price for cotton had been announced nor a rotation system from irrigation had been abolished.

He was of the view that the actual problem was not water shortage but mismanagement which he described as the real culprit.

Likewise, he said, agriculturalists were deprived of their due share from the good wheat crop when a ban was imposed on wheat movement. As a result investors and middleman took advantage of the situation, he added.

He recalled that after a series of bomb blasts in the city on July 7, the chief minister had ordered suspension of certain police officials for negligence but they were still performing their duties as usual.

Mr Jam said that most of the sugar mills owners were PPP supporters, and, therefore, the government could easily force them to pay the growers the rates fixed by the government ie Rs63 per ton instead of Rs56 per ton.

He also demanded subsidies on fertilizers, quality seeds, pesticides and on tube wells for agricultural use.The opposition leader said as the coalition government had no agenda to summon the assembly’s session, and the joint opposition, despite being small in number, was considering moving a requisition to consider increasing unemployment, crash of the stock market and economic slowdown.Mr Jam termed the formation of the Thar Coal Authority by the federal government a move to curtail provincial autonomy and asked the government to withdraw its notification.

He said that those officials who had benefited from the NRO were reportedly being given important assignments in the government. At least they should not be tasked with important assignments in the financial institutions, he said.

Regarding the Kalabagh Dam, the opposition leader said that the PPP had made tall claims of burying the Kalabagh Dam project for good during the Sindh assembly session, he, while welcoming the move, had asked the government to follow the rules for its proper disposal as a mere announcement was not enough.

“Now our Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah during his recent visit to Punjab reportedly said that the fate of Kalabagh Dam would be decided after developing a consensus among all the four provinces,” he said.

Arif Ali Jatoi said that the opposition was working to move bills in the next session to enforce Sugar Act 2008, setting up Sindh Bank, Small Claims Act and for the amendments to the Factories Act to provide cover of EOBI to the Haris and workers