Leader of the opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Wednesday, said that corruption was the only reason behind PPP Sindh government’s perseverance on present local government act as they were making billion while taking advantage of the prevailing law. Haleem Adil Sheikh, while addressing a press conference here at Sindh Assembly Building, said that several provisions in Sindh Local Government Act 2013 were undermining autonomy of LG institutions of the province and the same were being exploited by the provincial government to embezzle funds amounting to billion of rupees. “Sindh is being ruled by Ali Baba and forty thieves who are busy in striping of national exchequer and resources of people of the province ruthlessly,” he alleged adding that the level of corruption in the province could easily be gauged by the fact that gold biscuits, bonds and foreign currency worth billion of rupees were recovered recently in a raid on residence of an audit official serving in finance ministry. If a grade 14 official possessed gold biscuits of billion then gold could be recovered from the ministers of Sindh government, Haleem asserted and alleging that local government and audit officials recently caught with immense black money, had relations with provincial ministers and the chief minister. He said that if local government representatives had financial and administrative powers and they had committed such crimes, their electorate had made them accountable for their wrong deeds because people had access to them. Haleem Adil Sheikh said that there were 21 controversial articles in SLGA-2013 which directly affect the autonomy of LG bodies and make third tier of government meaningless and inefficient and that bone of contention had to be removed to make the controversial LG act acceptable. SLGA-2013’s article 74, 75, 77, 80, 87, 88, 92, 105, 112, 118, 119, 123, 144 and certain provisions of schedules of the act grant excessive authority and powers regarding financial, administrative, development, recruitment and other issues to the provincial government and a local council could not finalize even schemes of water supply and drainage at their own, Haleem Adil Sheikh mentioned adding that even the provincial government was empowered enough to suspend chairman, members or the entire local council. The opposition leader strongly criticized tractor march of PPP and termed it as adding insult to miseries of poor farmers of Sindh. He said that ‘a billionaire farmer’ was seen driving a tractor in the march. PPP government embezzled billions of rupees in subsidy scheme of 3200 tractors and not a single tractor reached to real farmer, he said and added that Omni Group fraudulently usurped the subsidized tractors on CNICs of farmers. Haleem observed that several cases were in the courts and NAB while involved officers of agriculture and other relevant departments settled the issue on plea bargain. He said that Imran Khan led federal government had issued ‘Kisan Cards’ to farmers of Pakistan but Sindh government had blocked the move in the province because they did not want to facilitate the peasants. Haleem Adil said that Sindh government had ransacked the health department and situation in government hospitals was precarious and people were deprived of healthcare facilities. He said that PTI government had issued Health cards in KP, Punjab, Balochistan,AJK and Gilgit Baltistan but Sindh government was hampering issuance of the card in Sindh. Health is provincial subject and federal government required consent of the provincial government for the purpose, he added. He said that federal government was providing Covid-19 vaccine to Sindh and vaccination center was set up in Expo Centre Karachi that was also administered by federal government but Sindh government had not paid salaries to vaccinators serving there and they had taken to street in protest. He said that Covid-19 was spreading at an alarming rate in Karachi but Sindh government was paying no heed to the issue. Haleem Adil said that widow of Nazim Jokhio held a press conference against prosecution department and appealed for justice. He said that Siraj Lashari and Tanvir Odho had submitted investigation report on the brutal murder to prosecution department but the same was not being submitted into the trial court just to extend undue favour to involved influential persons. He accused that prosecution department in Sindh became facilitator of killers and criminals and this department was also under Murtaza Wahab. Haleem Adil while referring to transfers of SSPs of different districts said that it was a delayed but good decision. If the SSP of Tando Allahyar who was involved in criminal activities had been transferred earlier the situation in the district had not gone worse, he noted. He said that Punjab government took immediate action on sad incident of Murree in which 23 people lost their lives but in Sindh no timely action was taken against negligent officers when 23 people died due to consuming poisonous liquor in Tando Allahyar and Tando Jam. Responding to a question on recent report of Transparency International, Haleem Adil said that the news reports appearing in the media were based on a press release. The status of press release of Adil Gillani was similar to the affidavit of Rana Shamim and probably it was drafted in media cell of Marium Nawaz as well, he said. On another query Haleem Adil Sheikh termed ethnically motivated remarks attributed to MQM-P leader Waseem Akhtar as irresponsible and regrettable and said that culture and norms of any nation must not be targeted and everyone should avert of passing such inciting remarks. Issue of ethnic divide must be dealt with seriously as Karachi had witnessed killing of thousands of people on the basis of it, he said and stressed on media outlets to play down such issues.