From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that the government had “no objection” to the 18th Amendment but that it was necessary to review some of its points that were “included in a hurry”.
While addressing the media at the Governor’s House, Karachi, he said that the Amendment had given provincial chief ministers “powers equivalent to dictators”, but they did not devolve that power to local governments. “The system everywhere is based on three tiers but [in Pakistan] the system is two-tiered.” The premier is in Karachi for a two-day visit to Sindh his first since the coronavirus outbreak began.
“I have clarified that devolution of power happens in societies where there is good governance. [The PPP government] included some things in the 18th Amendment in a hurry that need to be reviewed,” he said. “One example is pollution air and environment pollution affect all provinces. Medicines need to be standardised. They have done several things wrong.”
The premier claimed that the local government system the PTI would bring in the next elections would be “the best in the world”, adding that it was the PTI that devolved power and empowered village councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, making it the first province to do so.
“We have held direct elections at the Tehsil level. The purpose for doing this is because we realised that a lot of corruption was done when elections was conducted through nazim. This is the system worldwide.”
He added that the mayoral system was successful all over the world. “Karachi’s problems cannot be solved unless direct elections happen. This system exists worldwide, I am not saying something new.” The premier said that there was an “anomaly” in the National Finance Commission (NFC), adding that 65 per cent was given to the provinces while there were allocations for defence and debt servicing as well.
“The federal government starts with Rs7 billion deficit budget, it is not feasible. This needs discussion and review. No budget in world is made with deficit.”
The premier said that Pakistan was the only country to strike a balance between tackling the spread of the virus and saving the economy. “Corona is international. Pakistan is thankfully saved. We would have reached our peak anyway because we can’t [afford to] lockdown.” Citing the example of India, he said that they had to lift restrictions as people were dying of hunger and of the virus. “Pakistan is the only country to strike a balance between both […] 34pc of the people in India went below the poverty line.
“Countries that have controlled the virus like Germany and Sweden, the people there followed standard operating procedures (SOPs),” he said, adding that strict action would now be taken against those violating the government’s guidelines.
“We know where the hotpsots are and will enforce a smart lockdown in those areas.”
He added that the federal government looked at national interest when proceeding against the Covid-19 outbreak. “We took the entire country’s interests into consideration. We developed a system whereby the chief ministers and doctors of all the provinces could discuss the situation everyday.”
On the contrary, he said that the Sindh government agreed on matters during the National Coordination Committee meetings and then “an hour later Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah would hold a press conference saying the opposite”.
“Sindh did a very harsh lockdown at the start. In a country where 25 million people rely on daily wages, if you shut down, people will start dying of hunger. Nobody asked me [about the lockdown] and then other provinces followed suit.
“The result was that cars were being attacked and looted while passing through slum areas because people were hungry. So we started doing smart lockdowns because you can’t shut all the people. We took all provinces on board. Murad Ali Shah agreed but then Bilawal said something else … Bilawal Bhutto has no idea how poor people live.”
The premier said there were no contradictions in any of his statements on the coronavirus outbreak, even when “governments across the world had changed their stance”.
“They had consistency because we made the National Command and Operation Centre.” The premier added that there were two paths going forward. “If we follow SOPs, our hospitals will be able to cope [with the number of patients]. It will be difficult, but they will cope. But if we don’t follow SOPs, our hospitals will buckle under the pressure.”
Speaking about the ongoing locust attack in different parts of the country, the prime minister said that “Pakistan could not fight the locust attack on its own”. He said that the government was in contact with Iran as it was also affected.
He added that there were concerns that more swarms of locusts could arrive from the Horn of Africa or from India in July. “We hold meetings and discuss this. It is very unfortunate if politics is played on [this issue] like corona. We are making efforts but some things are not in our control. We are in constant contact with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).”
The premier said that the government had allocated resources to deal with the attacks “without considering [the different] responsibilities of the Centre and provinces”. He added that the government had declared an emergency to deal with the locust attacks on January 31. “Unfortunately all planes for locust spray from 1990s were old and dysfunctional,” he acknowledged.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday rejected rumours of completely withdrawing National Finance Commission (NFC) award and said that it has some errors, which would be rectified after the consultation process, media reported.
Speaking to media during his visit to Larkana, the prime minister said that under the 18th amendment, powers were devolved to provinces but they did not devolve it further to the grass-root level. The prime minister while portraying himself as the ardent supporter of devolving powers to the lowest level, said that the system would only be strengthened if powers are devolved to the grass-root level.
He announced to introduce one of the best local bodies’ system in the country, which would saw the direct transfer of funds to district councils. He further said that issues faced by megacities like Karachi and Lahore could not be resolved unless direct elections for local bodies’ representatives are held in them. “Karachi Mayor should be elected directly,” he suggested.
The prime minister said that the issues faced by the metropolis could not be resolved unless its representatives are empowered and provided adequate resources.
Imran Khan lamented that politics is being played on coronavirus issue and said that decisions were taken during NCOC meeting after consultation with all provinces.
We are facing dual issues as we have to save people not only from coronavirus but also from hunger, he said. “We have not differentiated among the provinces and have extended equal cooperation towards them during the pandemic,” he said while lamenting that Murad Ali Shah agrees on the decisions in the meeting but Bilawal Bhutto issues statement later negating it.
He criticized Bilawal and said that he could not know the suffering of the poor segments as he had never visited a slum area.
While rejecting lack of preparation from the government to deal with locust attacks, the prime minister said that they had imposed an emergency in the country to deal with it from January 2020.
He said that none of the planes needed to conduct spray against locusts was in a position to be made functional. “We tried to fly one of them but it crashed,” he said while lamenting previous governments.
He said that a locusts attack from India is expected in the month of July and the government is in contact with the authorities in Indian and Iran to jointly counter its effect on the agriculture sector.
Speaking on the sugar inquiry report, the prime minister said that 80 sugar mills have paid Rs 9 billion in terms of taxes during the past five years and in contrast, they availed subsidy of Rs 29 million.
“They have internal rifts but all of them are on the same page over securing monetary gains,” he blamed and vowed to avail all resources to expose them. Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and the allied political parties were pursuing the common agenda of eliminating corruption, poverty reduction and improving public service.
In a meeting with a delegation of allied political parties in Karachi on Wednesday, he said that for fulfillment of its agenda, the federal government was cooperating with all provinces particularly Sindh.
Imran Khan said sustainable development was only possible through administrative reforms and devolution of power.
He said political leadership in the past misused public offices for personal gains and ignored the uplift of masses. The delegation comprised Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar, Kanwar Naveed, Kishwar Zehra, Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Syed Afridi, Ashraf Qureshi, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Irfan Marwat, Ayaz Latif, Sardar Abdur Raheem and Hasnain Mirza. The delegation presented proposals on development projects and administrative reforms for Sindh.
Governor Sindh Imran Ismael, Privatization Minister Muhammadmian Soomro and Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Zaidi were present.
