Observer Report
Karachi
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said Wednesday the federal government should not consider the province as a colony of Islamabad, questioning why companies similar to the Sindh Infrastructure Development Co Ltd (SIDCL) were not set up in Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing a press conference in the Sindh Assembly auditorium alongside Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, Advisor Murtaza Wahab, and Special Assistant to the Chief Minister Javed Nayab Leghari, Shah said the centre’s move to carry out development works through the federally-controlled SIDCL was unacceptable.
The CM said he was informed that the SIDCL had been set up by the centre through a revised document from the Public Sector Development Programme — a day after he had found discrepancies in the original one. The company was formed to carry out development schemes of the federal government in Sindh.
Each of the other three provinces had been provided their respective funds to carry out the development work but for Sindh, a separate company was formed, Shah observed.
“This is quite surprising and a new thing for me,” he noted, adding that it was the first time he saw 22 schemes — 22 of which were for Sindh — being assigned to the Cabinet Division for implementation.
“The Cabinet Division of the federal government is not a development schemes executing agency,” he said.
Noting that he raised an objection during the National Economic Council’s meeting earlier, he said he had informed Prime Minister Imran Khan that his predecessor, Nawaz Sharif, had given Green Line project to Karachi but the federal government instead formed the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (KIDCL) to start the Rs24.6-billion Green Line bus transit system scheme.
