Daily Times

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib has said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has set new examples of bad governance and massive corruption in Sindh and people of the province are deprived of basic amenities including health, education and clean drinking water.

In a statement issued here on Monday, he claimed that the PPP failed completely 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 only expert in misappropriation of public funds.

Farrukh Habib asked Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to explain where he had spent Rs 1,900 billion given to Sindh 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 percent of taxes, he added.

The State Minister for Information said the education sector in Sindh also became victim of sheer negligence as 50 per cent of the total 12.5 million children were still out of the school. The socio-economic condition of people of Thar was even worse than in 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 future due to incompetence and bad governance of the Sindh government. Bilawal Bhutto should inform him when he would apologize to the people of Sindh for the negligence and carelessness of the Sindh government, he asked.

“How far the investigation into wheat theft has reached? Did any rat confess to the crime or the case was 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.

Farrukh Habib said all the mega projects in Sindh such as Nai Gaj Dam, Rainee Canal, Sindh Barrage, Multan-Sukkur Motorway, Green Line, K-4 were carried out by the centre despite the province being ruled by the PPP.

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

The state minister termed Bilawal Bhutto 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 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.

The minister also chided Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman for never speaking out against drone attacks in the country.

In a tweet, the Minister mentioned one of the Wikileaks cables which revealed that the JUI-F chief, in a meeting with former Ambassador of the United States Anne W. Patterson, had offered his allegiance to her country to have its patronage.

He said Fazlur Rehman never spoke out against drone attacks in the past as he only had courage to pressurize the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to achieve his vested interests.