PSP chief demands provinces announce PFCs

Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said neither did the country has “real democracy nor pure dictatorship” as so-called democratic leaders turned out to be “worst dictators” whereas dictators “left the baton aside” when they “developed a fondness for democracy”.

He expressed these views while talking to the party members in a meeting via video link. “After the introduction of the 18th constitutional amendment, the federation could not provide resources directly to the district administrations, because all monetary resources go to the chief minister directly,” said Kamal, adding that the chief ministers were acting like dictators.

Even today, he said, there was an opportunity to announce the Provincial Financial Commission (PFC) award and launch it along with the National Financial Commission (NFC) award.

“The PFC award should be launched under the same formula being applied to the NFC because it is public money, not of any individual family. It is the legitimately earned money of the people of all regions,” he said.

The PSP supremo vowed that when responsibilities of the government came to his party “they will ideally transfer the powers and resources to the lowest level of administrations”. He said the country could not function in these circumstances because the government was not ready to listen to any solution.

“If the present system is unable to solve the problems of my people then the system needs to be changed. We have to decide whether we want to save Pakistan or to save the governments,” the PSP chief said.

He said the authorities must seriously think that “now is the time to save Pakistan, not to save the governments”. He added: “We did not leave our families and big slots just for mere talks, we will fight against this false system in our lives in Pakistan. We can resolve the issues of the country, as we have proven in the past. Karachi ranked amongst the 12 fast developing cities of the world in my tenure of mayorship.”

Discussing the recent wave of terrorism in Karachi, he said India’s RAW had formed “a consortium of the Mutahida Qaumi Movement, the Baloch Liberation Army and the Jeay Sindh groups because now the Indian spy agency could not find a single person from Karachi for terrorism”.

Talking about the performance of the federal government, Kamal said those who could not even become councillors had become federal ministers and “the result is that Pakistan and its people are suffering because of their incompetence”.

He continued: “The PTI has been given the mandate of Karachi to such people who did not know about the neighbourhoods in their constituency even after 22 months.”

Showing anger over the Pakistan Peoples Party’s performance, Kamal said the ruling party in Sindh was “a biased and corrupt government that has been giving jobs on the basis of nepotism and fake domiciles”.

Protest against KE

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’ protest sit-in that ended on Saturday on its sixth day was “nothing but a drama and hypocrisy”, maintained PSP leaders, including former deputy mayor Arshad Vohra, former MPAs Syed Hafeezuddin and Shabbir Qaim Khani, at a press conference held at the Pakistan House on Sunday.

“Standing in front of the K-Electric's office, a federal minister accompanied by the Sindh governor said there would be no more unannounced load-shedding in Karachi, which means that load-shedding by the KE is being carried out at the behest of the federal government,” said Vohra.

He said the KE was blatantly lying to the nation in the name of power shortfall. “Karachi has a total demand of 3300MW, however, 4000MW is being supplied to the KE system that includes 2920MW from Hubco, 1320MW from the Port Qasim Coal Power, 137MW from KANUPP, 660MW Thar coal to Karachi from the national grid, 126 MW from the Gull Energy, 136MW from the Tapal Energy, and some 99 MW was being supplied from the windmill project.”

Despite surplus power supply to the KE system, load-shedding was being carried out even in this sizzling summer which was is “nothing but a well-thought conspiracy against Karachi”, he said.

The PSP leader said the KE operated under the federal government. “Protesting against the KE is protesting against their own government and a clear no-confidence motion.” He added: “If the KE did not act as a responsible power utility, the PSP will go to any length to stop its oppression. If the KE’s state of affairs did not move in the right direction, we will stage a massive protest.”