Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Monday condemned the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for bad governance and massive corruption in Sindh, where, he said, people were deprived of basic amenities including health, education and clean drinking water.

In a statement, he said the PPP had completely failed to fulfill the mandate given by the people of Sindh in the last general elections, suggesting ‘corruption’ as an electoral symbol for the party which was an expert in misappropriation of public funds.

The minister said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari should explain as to where he had spent Rs 1,900 billion given to the province by the federation under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

He said Sindh was not only marred by corruption but also incompetency as the PPP-led government had even failed to utilize 59 per cent of the development budget during the ongoing financial year. It also missed its current year’s revenue target by collecting less than 53 per cent of taxes, he added.

Farrukh said the education sector in Sindh has also become a victim of sheer negligence as 50 per cent of the total 12.5 million children were still out of school. The socio-economic condition of the people of Thar was even worse than of other areas as they were deprived of basic amenities including health and clean drinking water.

He said the province would be grappling with deadly diseases like stunting growth and HIV / AIDS in the future due to incompetency and bad governance of the Sindh government.

“How far has the investigation into wheat theft reached? Did any rat confess to the crime or was the case disposed of?” he questioned, adding the rats of Sindh, who had eaten wheat worth Rs 14 billion, were far ahead of Bilawal in committing corruption.

He said all the mega projects in Sindh such as Nai Gaj Dam, Rainee Canal, Sindh Barrage, Multan-Sukkur Motorway, Green Line, K-4 were being handled by the centre.

The minister said the country was on track of progress and development only due to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s prudent policies and decisions.

He termed Bilawal the so-called champion of democracy and said the PPP chairman should explain as to how much representation was given to the standing committees including the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Sindh.

It was agreed in the Charter of Democracy, signed by Late Benazir Bhutto and the fugitive Nawaz Sharif, that the chairmanship of PAC would be given to the opposition, he said, adding there was no check on the Sindh government due to non-representation of opposition in the PAC.