KARACHI: Chief Minister (CM)-elect Syed Murad Ali Shah, while showing a copy of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) manifesto on the floor of Sindh Assembly, said that he was going to implement it because his party had been voted into power again on that manifesto. Murad Ali Shah said this while delivering his inaugural speech after being elected as the 29th CM of Sindh on Thursday. This would be Syed Murad Ali Shah’s second consecutive term as the Sindh CM. After being elected, the Sindh CM delivered his inaugural speech in which he said that half the resources of the country had been exhausted since we did not take care of Jinnah’s effort. “Now we stand in need for Pakistan,” he said. “I am really very thankful to Sindh and its people who elected me and put trust in the PPP,” said the CM before adding that the people of Sindh had always voted for the PPP. The CM said that the people had voted for PPP despite negative propaganda and that Asif Ali Zardari had taken the country forward. He further said that the PPP had bagged 3.2 million (mn) votes in 2013 elections and 3.9 mn votes in the 2018 polls. Shah said that he had followed in footsteps of his father who was also the Chief Minister of Sindh. “Bringing change in Pakistan is good but people forget their history,” said the CM, adding that they should always remember the black era of Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship. The CM-elect said that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had won the election 2018 on their manifesto. Murad Ali Shah held the manifesto up and said that the party’s manifesto was based on the improvement of social sector. “I am bound implement this manifestoes because our people have elected us on this manifesto,” he said. Discussing his priorities on the floor, the chief minister-elect said that his top most priority was law and order. He added that he and his predecessor Syed Qaim Ali Shah had restored peace not just in Karachi but all over the province during their tenures. “Now, we have to sustain it and make Sindh the most peaceful province in the country. Only then can we prosper as a nation,” he said. Reminding the parliamentarians of the law and order situation a decade ago, Murad Ali Shah said that back then, people used to travel in convoys on the highways because they feared highway robberies. He said that the law and order situation in Karachi had been a lot worse than rural Sindh. “It was out of commitment to people that PPP government launched a targeted operation and demonstrated zero tolerance against outlaws and mafias to restore peace in the city,” he added. Murad Ali Shah admitted that street crime had increased in the metropolis in the past two months. “We would soon eliminate street criminals,” he remarked. Replying to the speech of an opposition member, the chief minister-elect said that he was committed to making Sindh police the most efficient, community friendly and effective force by introducing police reforms. “We had started capacity building of the police force in our last tenure. Under that programme, we started modern police training in army training centres, recruited up to 10,000 policemen on merit and equipped the police force with latest weapons as well as gadgets,” he said. Shah also said that this kind of capacity building would continue in this tenure too. The second priority Syed Murad Ali Shah spelt out was the provision of potable, agricultural and industrial water. He said that there was a common misconception that the water crisis could be dealt with effectively through the construction of dams. “This is totally wrong. Dams are nothing more than cemented walls and they require water to function. We don’t have water in the system so constructing more dams would not resolve the issue of water shortage,” said Shah. Shah said that conservation of water and adaptation of modern irrigational methods was the real solution to the country’s water problem. Murad Ali Shah informed the assembly that he was planning on launching a desalination project on public private partnership mode. He explained that the plant would produce potable water from sea water by desalinating it. He added that the Sindh government had constructed roads and bridges on Indus on private public partnership mode. “Our private public partnership unit is best in the country,” said Shah proudly. Talking about industrial water requirements in Karachi and other parts of the Sindh, the chief minister-elect said that demand for industrial water would be catered through the provision of recycled water. “Again, we would launch such projects on private public partnership mode,” he said. He also said that hardly a portion of water in the city was treated. “We have started a water treatment project and it would be completed shortly,” said Shah. He said that the provincial government had installed thousands of water supply schemes in villages and towns but they had failed because of prolonged power outages and excessive load shedding. “To cope with this, we started solarising water schemes,” said the CM. “We will prioritise the provision of clean, drinking water to the people of Sindh in this tenure,” he announced. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that his third priority would be health. He said that health facilities had been established all over Sindh and most of them had been upgraded to the level of BHU plus, taluka and district headquarters hospitals. “Our success story in health sector is our public private partnership,” he said. He said that the cardiovascular facilities had been established in different districts as satellites of the main NICVD at Karachi. “Now, cardio hospital are available all over Sindh within an hour’s drive,” he said. “We would further improve them and establish more cardio centres and hospitals,” he added. The CM-elect set education as his fourth priority and said that he had declared an education emergency in the province but was unable to achieve the desired results. He said that the main issue in education sector was the availability of good teachers. “We would give special focus to the education sector by introducing teacher training programmes. We will also scientifically improve the syllabus as per international standards,” he said. Discussing poverty alleviation, Murad Ali Shah said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had directed him to launch a special poverty alleviation programme. “We plan to fight against poverty by launching income-generating programmes particularly in the rural areas,” he added. The CM-elect also warned the federal government against discontinuation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Speaking on the pressing issue of women empowerment, the CM said that he planned on launching different projects focused on providing women with employment opportunities. “We would further strengthen women development department to work for women empowerment,” he said. The CM-elect also discussed transportation in detail. He said that the urban transport projects he had launched during his last tenure were nearing completion. “I am sorry to say that the federally-funded Green Line project is still incomplete and they (fed govt) were advising me during my last tenure to procure passenger busses to ply on different routes,” he said. “If I had procured buses, where would they have plied?,” he asked. Referring to the speeches delivered by the MPAs who were in attendance of the assembly session, Murad Shah said that they must be taught parliamentary norms. “I am sorry to say that you (opposition MPAs) were speaking in such a harsh way as if there was a war between the opposition and the treasury benches,” he said. Lambasting the opposition further, he advised them to go to the library and review the speeches of parliamentarians of 1970’s. “You will be able to know how much decency, respect and dignity was in their work,” he said. CM Murad Ali Shah said that some members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) claimed that they would solve all the problems between the center and provincial government. “Thank you so much for your offer. I would request you to ask federal government to constitute National Finance Commission (NFC) in the first phase and award NFC,” he said. He also urged the PTI members to ask the federal government to give Sindh its due water share. Published in Daily Times, August 17th 2018.