PPP minister retracts statement on committee

KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, after confirming the formation of a body for Karachi, later denied such a committee and said that “only steps to eliminate bottlenecks in the development process in the city were discussed."

The information minister said that during the meeting between the Sindh chief minister and Asad Umar, only the bottlenecks to carry out development works and their solutions were discussed.

On the other hand, the MQM-P, which is a part of the coalition government inthe Centre, described the committee’s formation as “not extraordinary” and said that such committees had been formed in the past too.

“It is a working committee comprising the city’s stakeholders, not a special committee on Karachi,” said MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. He said that the committee’s mandate was only limited to cleaning the city. Siddiqui said that the city mayor Akhtar, who attended the meeting, would soon brief the MQM-P’s Coordination Committee about the meeting.