Sindh won’t allow illegal constructions on islands off Karachi’s coast: info minister

The Sindh government will not allow any unauthorised constructions on the two islands off the coast of Karachi, said information and local government minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Tuesday.

He was talking to media persons at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) where he handed over a cheque of Rs25 million to the office-bearers of the club as the annual budgeted grant from the Sindh government for the KPC.

The minister said a committee formed by the Sindh government would soon release a report on the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar Awan in Karachi. He expressed gratitude to Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa for taking action in this regard.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party had a firm belief in freedom of expression. He said the support being given to journalists by the PPP had no match in the entire country.

The minister said the Rs25 million grant was released on the instructions of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and that it was “a small token of support from the Sindh government” to the club.

He said the facility of life insurance coverage would be given to the KPC members. He said the matter related to the residential plots of the KPC members was also being resolved as the Lyari Development Authority had been issued with directives to make progress in this regard. He announced giving alternative plots to 210 KPC members whose plots had been encroached upon in LDA Block 2 .

To a question, the minister acknowledged that the lockdown restrictions being imposed by the government against the spread of coronavirus could lead to a situation of joblessness for citizens.

He said the forum of the National Command and Operation Centre was being used to make decisions by the Centre and provinces against the Covid-19 spread as per the directives of the courts.