By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said on Wednesday that the Sindh government was responsible for the plight of Karachiites after recent rains but it was blaming the federal government to cover up its own incompetence and inefficiency.
Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, he said that Pakistan People’s Party was politicising the natural disaster issues coronavirus, locust and now recent rains. The PPP, whic has been ruling Sindh for the past over one decade, was responsible for the sorry state of affairs of Karachi , he added.
He said that they claimed to transform Larkana into Karachi, but they converted Karachi into Larkana. They were given over Rs 14 trillion by the federal government during the past ten years but they spent nothing for alleviation of poverty and improvement of health and education facilities in the province, he added.
He said that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, instead of taking steps to save Karachi people from the deluge, were just blaming the federal government. One could judge the situation of rural Sindh by the plight of the people of urban areas, he added.Shibli Faraz said that the performance of the opposition parties in the Parliament was before the nation as they gave priority to self-interest over national interest by voting against FATF legislation.
To a question, he said that PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had been given permission to go
abroad for medical treatment but he made mockery of the law and indulged in political
activities, rather than getting treatment. He said that the government would avail all legal
options to bring Nawaz Sharif back to face the law of the land.
He said that the opposition parties were united only on the issue of protecting plundered
national wealth, otherwise they had different agendas. He said that the meeting between
Shahbaz Sharif and Fazlur Rehman ended in a fiasco and Bilawal and Shahbaz were
divergent on many issues.
He said that the opposition was trying to instigate the people against incumbent government but they would fail in their nefarious designs.Earlier addressing the press conference, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was worried about high prices of edible items in the country and personally monitoring the steps being taken to give relief to the poor. He said that the PM has been chairing high level meetings and issuing directives to bring prices of essential items down.
The minister said that hoarding was one of the main reasons for raise in wheat flour prices and the government would take strong action against such elements who fleece the poor for their own benefit. He said that such elements did hoard big quantities of commodities and created artificial shortage of the commodity which resulted in shooting of the prices.
He said that the government has taken concrete steps to counter the hoarding and the import of wheat was one major initiative, so that the consumers could get the commodity at affordable rates.
