Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that the federal government had deleted 36 important schemes from its next development programme.

“This is an injustice with the people of Sindh and this will further give rise to the sense of deprivation and isolation among the people of the province,” he said, while presiding over a preparatory meeting of National Economic Council (NEC) at the CM House.

The NEC meeting is scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Wednesday. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Sindh’s representative Nisar Ahmed Khuhro will attend the meeting.

The chief minister said that the estimated cost of the entire PSDP portfolio, both the existing and new, was Rs 8 trillion in which Sindh-based schemes were worth only Rs 540 billion.

“It means Sindh has been given only seven percent share in the PSDP,” he said and termed it an injustice with the people of the province.

Shah said that the federal government had about 36 schemes having a cost of over Rs 51 billion, including foreign aid component pertaining to Sindh in water, roads and other sectors were arbitrarily deleted from the PSDP 2018-19 after its revision in September 2018.

Murad Ali Shah says out of Rs 8 trillion PSDP, Sindh-based schemes are worth only Rs 540 billion

The schemes deleted from the PSDP 2018-19 include the Rehabilitation and Modernization of Sukkur Barrage. It is a World Bank funded project in which 80 percent funds will be provided by the World Bank. The Sindh government will provide 10 percent of the cost.

Another project that has been dropped relates to the construction of a new bridge with approach roads over River Indus between Sukkur and Rohri. This was announced by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to Sukkur. Other schemes that have been ended are: construction of an 88 km Mirpurkhas-Umerkot section; construction of southern bypass Hyderabad; rehabilitation of existing 200 km carriageway from Sehwan-Ratodero; lining of KB feeder upper canal for water supply to Karachi city; and the construction of feeder canal to Manchar Lake to eradicate contamination.

The chief minister said that the Jamshoro to Sehwan Section Road was a classic case of mismanagement. “The Sindh government has provided Rs 7 billion to get this important road completed. Unfortunately, there is no progress on it so far,” he said. “I will request the federal government to instruct the NHA to complete it or return the Sindh government’s Rs7 billion so that the provincial government could complete it from it on its own,” he said.

Murad Ali Shah also said that the federal government had drastically reduced the overall allocation of schemes reflected in the Finance Division portfolio, which were being executed by the provincial governments.

He said that the Sindh government’s portfolio had been curtailed and many schemes which were on-going and yet to be completed had been deleted. “There are now only five on-going schemes with an estimated cost of Rs 23.9 billion against which only Rs 1.77 billion have been allocated for next financial year, 2019-20,” he said.

Shah pointed out that the overall Finance Division’s allocation for PSDP 2019-20 was Rs 36.61 billion. “The KPK/FTA has been given 75 percent funds, Balochistan 15 percent, Sindh only 4.85 percent and four percent Punjab. The government will focus on health, education, water and sanitation and development of road network in the budget for new financial year,” he said. Murad Ali Shah said that Sindh government was going to initiate poverty alleviation programme for which donor agencies are also extending help. He said that uplifting living standard of the people and resolving the problems faced by the common man will be top priorities in budget of next financial year.