Daily Times

Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Friday warned that no one could scare his party’s leadership.

Addressing a public gathering in Khan Gharh, the former president said that power had turned those sitting in Islamabad deaf, dumb and blind to the plight of the people.

He said that the nation is united and is well aware of its rights, adding that no one can scare the PPP leadership. The PPP co-chairman said he would face anyone who attempted to challenge him.

“A country only becomes stronger when its people are happy. We come here to serve the public, not to serve ourselves,” he said.

He said he didn’t pass 18th amendment, ‘it was passed by the Parliament to give their rights to all provinces’. He said the PTI government was working to deny the provinces their rights.

He said the PPP believed that the first right on any development project was that of the inhabitants of an area, adding that history would show who served the people of Pakistan and who worked against their interests.

Earlier, Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also addressed the gathering. He said that Ghotki district was adding more to the federal revenue pool than the amount it was getting from the Centre for its development needs. He assured the gathering that he would take up the matter with the federal government.

He said that it was the first time in a number of years that the federal government was unable to recover enough revenue to beat the previous year’s revenue, adding that those unable to meet revenue targets had no right to rule the state.

Shah said that the Sindh government had given out a loan to the SSGCL to provide gas facilities of remote villages. However, he said the company could not extend gas infrastructure to these areas because of a federal government ban and it was now refusing to return the money to the province.

Shah also raised the issue of matter pending before the Council of Common Interests (CCI). He said rulers in Islamabad were unaware of the people’s problems. PPP MNAs Syed Khursheed Shah, Nauman Islam Shaikh, Senator Islamuddin Shaikh, former Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah, provincial ministers Sardar Muhammad Bux Khan Mahar, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Syed Awais Qadir Shah, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Shabir Bijarani, and MNA Khalid Ahmed Lund were also present on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, December 29^th 2018.