Murad Saeed terms Sindh CM facilitator of corrupt elements

KARACHI: Federal Minister of Communication and Postal Services Murad Saeed on Saturday said bids for the Motorways' Hyderabad-Sukkur section have been received and Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the ground-breaking of the project soon.

"The Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway will be the first motorway initiated by the PTI government and would be gift to the people of Sindh,” said Murad Saeed while addressing a press conference here at the Sindh Assembly building. Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and other PTI’s elected representatives were also present.

Murad Saeed said the federal government was working on a number of projects of highways and roads in Sindh to ensure better communication and transportation facilities for the people.

The Green Line of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system will be inaugurated in December and people of Karachi would be able to avail better commuting facilities, he announced. “Another important project 786-kilometer long Karachi-Quetta-Chaman highway has entered into the advanced stages and its construction work would start shortly,” he said.

He said the Sindh government has no capacity to clean the drainage of Karachi.” If they ask a question about it, they say with more rain comes more water ,” he said sarcastically.

Saeed said that wheat flour and sugar were more more expensive in Sindh due to erroneous policies and corrupt practices of the PPP's government. “Flour is expensive in Sindh while mice eat wheat,” he said.

Accusing the Sindh CM of working as facilitator of corrupt elements, he said the Sindh government used police for crimes. “Our elected assembly members from Karachi are not involved in any crime,” he added.

Saeed stated that the federal government was also playing its role for the completion of the Karachi Circular Railway while several roads and streets were completed in Karachi through federal funding. “Another road project was completed in Umerkot district which will be inaugurated today (Sunday), the federal minister said. Murad Saeed said people in Sindh were suffering due to bad governance and corruption of the PPP’s provincial government, while democratic norms were also being undermined by th eself-acclaimed champions of democracy. He said that the PPP that insists on democratic values in the National Assembly and the Senate is denting democratic principles in Sindh by constraining opposition from playing its role in the provincial assembly.

“It was regrettable that opposition parties in Sindh were deprived of membership in the Public Accounts Committee and standing committees while Shahbaz Sharif was made chairman PAC despite facing allegations of corruption,” he said.

Condemning the brutal killings of Sakhawat Rajput, Nazim Jhokio, and Fahmida Sial, the federal minister said that the law and order situation in Sindh was bad as people were being murdered by influential persons. “Um-e-Rubab was another example of injustice in Sindh whose father and other family members were assassinated and she was in quest of justice.”

Accusing the PPP of obstructing federal funded projects in Sindh, Saeed said that the provincial government objected to projects of education and health sectors under the MNA fund on the pretext of the 18th Amendment and provincial autonomy.

On the other side, the Sindh government attempted to deprive local government institutions of their constitutional rights and responsibilities, he said, adding that Article 140-A of the Constitution that provided for financial, administrative, and political empowerment of LG bodies was violated in Sindh.

He said Prime minister Imran Khan was planning to introduce Electronic Voting (EVM) to ensure transparent and fair elections while the PPP wanted secret balloting in the LG system to facilitate rigging and to launch unelected people of its choice.

He said that health and education sectors were also deteriorating in Sindh day-by-day as hospitals lack doctors, medicines and ambulances, while teachers and furniture are missing from the schools.

The federal minister said the PTI has introduced historical reforms in police, education, environment and health sectors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and put the terrorism-hit province on the path of progress and prosperity. “Every citizen in KP has access to better health facilities through the Health Card while the same facility was also provided to masses in Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and Tharparkar district of Sindh,” he said.

Replying to a question about Karachi-Hyderabad M9 Motorway, Murad Saeed said the Communication Ministry was in contact with the Sindh government for improving M9 but the issue of right remains to be resolved. He said that there were 118 toll plazas under control of NHA and the PTI government has not raised any toll tax, but agreement M9 motorway toll tax was inked back in 2015 for a 20 year term, he added.