Daily Times

Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Thursday said that Sindh has always been neglected in the federal development program.

The Minister claimed that the Prime Minister himself had said that Sindh was not their province, which depicts the seriousness of federal government towards Sindh. He said that the Sindh government is never taken into confidence on federal budget programs.

Addressing a press conference, the provincial minister added that the federal government had often invited Sindh bureaucracy for online meetings instead of political leadership or provincial ministers, and added they were not even informed on the matter.

Nasir Shah said that we are ready to cooperate with the federal government for the development and betterment of the people of Sindh, but the federal government never contacted them on the matter. He said that the Sindh government has not been officially informed about the Prime Minister’s visit to Sindh.

“We welcome the federal government’s development package for Sindh announced through twitter and added that the government of Sindh will extend full cooperation to the federal government if they bring any development package for Sindh.

He said that the announcement of NFC award was made only by the government of President Asif Ali Zardari. After that, the PML-N government was supposed to announce the new NFC award in 2015 but it has not been announced yet. He said that the new NFC award was mandatory as per constitution.

He said that PPP is currently the only party that is fighting on the issue of census. Those who were vocal on the census also remained silent on the issue. MQM and PTI kept mum on the issue in the federal cabinet.

He said that the population of Sindh has been shown less in the 2017 census. “According to UNESCO, Sindh has a population of over 60 million. Less population makes a huge difference to the NFC share,” he added.

Replying to the question, the minister said that the stance of the Sindh government on recent protests in the country was clear. The method of the protesters is incorrect, such method is not acceptable. He said that on the instructions of the Sindh Chief Minister, he himself spoke with the leaders of demonstrators and advised them to hold peaceful demonstrations on one side of the road.

The provincial minister added that incompetent federal government was responsible for the situation as they entered into such an agreement with them. Despite an agreement, the federal government could have resolved issues by holding talks with them.

About the PDM, he said, “I am a political worker and hopeful that we will all become one. We are not a single political party. Parties in PDM have different manifestos. All parties were united under PDM on one point agenda for expelling the incompetent federal government that had destroyed the economy of country.

He said that the opposition parties have to be united so that the people could be saved from this incompetent government. The country could not bear the burden of incompetent PTI government. If they remained further in power, the economy of the country would reach such a level that no one would be able to manage it.

To another question, the provincial minister said that the decision of the PPP was now conditional to the decisions of the ANP.