Asad Umar asks PPP to cooperate for Sindh’s development

KARACHI: The Federal Planning and Development Minister, Asad Umar, has said that had there been an empowered local government in Karachi having resources as envisaged in the Constitution of Pakistan, the federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would have been able to work for development of the city much more speedily.

Asad Umar said that the system of local governments present in Sindh without due authority and resources are causing much damage to the entire province as such a practice of the Sindh Government of Pakistan Peoples Party was clearly a violation of the constitution. Asad Umar was addressing the press conference on Wednesday after attending a meeting of federally constituted Karachi Transformation Committee (KTC) here at Sindh Governor House to review federally funded development projects built in the city. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi Haider Zaidi, Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly belonging to PTI Firdous Shamim Naqvi, other Karachi-based legislators of PTI were also present at the press conference.

The federal minister said that PTI ruling in the centre and Pakistan Peoples Party ruling in Sindh should keep aside their mutual serious political differences, as both the centre and the provincial government had, to join forces to bring improvement in the lives of people of Sindh and that of Karachi. He said that there was no denial of the fact that serious political differences did exist between PTI and PPP as separate political entities but those had to be kept aside for carrying out agenda of development for the province.

The officials of Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Limited (SIDCL)-the federal entity responsible for building federally funded development projects in the city-also attended the meeting. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar also in jointly chaired a meeting to review federally funded development projects being built by SIDCL in the city. Answering a question, Asad Umar brushed aside the impression that the meeting at the Governor House was especially convened after the offer of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan to break its alliance with the PTI in the centre to join Peoples Party once more as coalition partners in Sindh. The questioner was of the viewpoint that the meeting at the Sindh Governor House had been convened by the PTI’s federal government to appease MQM as its coalition partners and to show that it was serious about development of the city. The Federal Planning and Development minister said that he could show to the media his “Whatsapp” messages exchanged earlier with Sindh governor on the issue to prove that the meeting at the Governor House had been planned before the recent statement of PPP chairman to woo back MQM.

Responding to another query, he said that it was wrong to assume that people of Karachi had become dejected as the PTI’s federal government had done nothing for development of the city. He said that PTI’s federal government went out of the way and bypassed regular bureaucratic procedure to speedily release extra finances for carrying out development works in the city. While to another question that MQM has also become disappointed as PTI’s government has been neglecting the development of Karachi, the federal minister said that Mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar belonging to MQM Pakistan was present among the participants of the KTC’s meeting earlier at the Governor House and he had expressed no such complaint.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail while speaking on the occasion said that it was wrong to assume that Karachi Mayor didn’t come to the press conference along with the PTI’s leaders at the Governor House after the KTC meeting while stating that he attended the meeting at the Governor House in the most cordial manner. To further elaborate his point that how much PTI’s federal government was concerned about development about Karachi, Asad Umar said that whenever he used to meet alone Prime Minister Imran Khan, the only city about which Imran Khan expressed his concern was Karachi as he always used to say: “Asad, we have to do something for Karachi,” he said.

He said that federal government was equally concerned about making functional the under-construction Green Line section of Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS) in Karachi as Rs 19 billion to Rs 20 billion had been spent on building this mass transit project. He said the federal government had fulfilled all of its obligations to build the Green Line project but the Sindh government had to provide buses for the project. He said that federal government in view of the inability of the provincial government had decided to procure buses for the project. For the purpose an agreement would be signed between SIDCL and the Sindh government to make this mass transit service functional earliest in the city.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said from the day one it was the foremost priority of the federal government to have a working relationship with the Sindh government to timely complete the federally funded development projects in Sindh. To a question, he said it was wrong to assume that the federally funded development projects in the city whose inauguration would be performed by the prime minister next month were started during the regime of past government, while saying that foundation stones of all the these projects had been jointly laid by him and Karachi Mayor one-and-half-years back. He said it was correct to say that all these projects were conceived in the regime of the past government but their approval had also been granted by the PTI’s government. He said that government would utilize all its resources to build K-IV project to fulfill bulk water supply needs of Karachi despite all obstacles.

Federal Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi said that one of the development projects being conceived by the federal government was to build a truck marshalling yard outside the city near Northern Bypass to ease off the vehicular congestion on roads of Karachi due to heavy traffic that emerged from Karachi Port. He said that some 18,000 trailer trucks carrying shipping containers emerged from the Karachi Port for their onward journey to the upcountry as special plans had to be conceived for hassle-free movement of this port-related heavy traffic. He said that a special study would be conducted for which support would be taken from PTI’s MNA belonging to Karachi Aftab Hussain Siddique to prepare a feasibility to use Lyari Expressway for heavy traffic emerging from the Karachi Port.

On the occasion, a journalist asked a question as who is true among the two as opposition is saying 2020 would be the year of change (Tabdeeli) while PM Imran Khan says that the new year would be the year of progress. Answering the question, Federal Minister Asad Umar said that both the PM and the opposition leaders were true but PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Maulana Fazlur Rehman didn’t know the real meaning of the word “Change” despite their association with the past governments in the country.