Daily Times

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) lawmaker and opposition leader in the Sindh assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan Monday lashed out at the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) over “poor performance of the provincial government in the Transport Department.

During the budget session at the Sindh Assembly, the opposition leader said that the Transport Department had done nothing during the last ten years of the PPP government. “We have heard about ghost employees, and now we have come to know about ghost buses.”

Hassan said that the ‘diesel bus plan’ announced by late Benazir Bhutto in 2001 could not be materialised as yet.

“Similarly, bus terminals in Thatta, Hyderabad and Badin were announced but the projects existed only on papers.” He added that the Larkana Bus Intercity Project had been put on the back burner. The project,he said, was supposed to be completed in June 2016.

“I could not believe my eyes when I go to Lahore. There are double-decker buses plying Lahore roads and when I come back Karachi all I witness is disappointment,” he said.

He went on to say that there was no progress on the Karachi Circular Railway Project. He said that those responsible for the delay in the project would be held accountable.

Referring to the water shortage in the city, the lawmakers said that Karachiites were being supplied 450 million gallons of water a day against the demand of 1,200 million gallons. The government, he said, was least bothered about the worsening water situation. “A dozen of water boards heads were changed and nothing else,” he said, adding that water is not available even in DHA.

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd 2018.