KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said on Saturday that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) will soon lose its provincial and local governments in Sindh.
He said this while addressing a function organized on the occasion of completion of restoration work of cooperative market in Sadar, which was burnt in the fire incident last year.
The Planning Minister said that the Sindh government neither gave relief to the people nor did anything for the province, adding population census was an old issue of Karachi, which was used for political purposes but no one has done it. No action was taken to solve it.
He said that Karachi would be empowered like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, digital means would be used to conduct the next census in the country on modern lines.
He said that the pilot project of the new census campaign will be run in May this year as the final announcement for conducting the census will be made later.
He said that earlier Karachi was desperate to get a modern public transport system as the transport project had now started in the city. He said the Sindh chief minister had told him that he (Asad Umar) would not be able to execute the project (transport).
The minister said work on the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project was also being implemented during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime as KCR was a more modern mass transport system for the city. He said that the orders of the Supreme Court are being implemented for the construction of the KCR project.
Asad Umar said that he opposed the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, but one must admit that development projects were carried out in the city during Musharraf's rule.
He said that Karachi residents are suffering at large due to acute water shortage as the people of the city are left with no option but to avail water tanker service.
He said that the K-IV bulk water supply project is being implemented under the Karachi Parivartan Yojana, which will provide 260 million gallons of water to the residents of the city on a daily basis.
Speaking on the occasion, the Governor of Sindh Imran Ismail congratulated the traders associated with the cooperative market on the revival of their office.
He admitted that PTI MLAs Khurram Sher Zaman and Aftab Siddiqui had worked hard to restore the market. He said that PTI did not give up on the traders of Karachi when they faced tough times.
The Governor told the affected traders of the market that they can get loans from the present government's Kamyab Jawan Yojana for the revival of their businesses. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had a relationship of love and affection with the city of Karachi. He said Karachi got new fire tenders under PTI's rule, while the current government also completed the Green Line bus project for the city.
"We work for Karachi and if there is any deficiency in this regard then we should be directed," he said.
Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly Halim Adil Sheikh said the revenue collected from Karachi traders is being used to run the affairs of the rest of the country.
He lamented that when the fire incident happened in the cooperative market, the fire tenders were without water.
He lauded the services of Asad Umar, who worked on PM Imran Khan's vision to adopt a policy of smart lockdown to deal with the coronavirus emergency.