Murad says no agreement reached on Karachi's civic issues

KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah on Monday dispelled rumours that an agreement had been reached between Karachi's political parties, saying that Karachi's stakeholders had only talked about forming a committee on the city's development issues. 

“There was talk of forming of a committee but there has been no agreement yet,” the chief minister clarified about the meeting held on Monday between MQM-P, PTI and the PPP. 

Murad was addressing a press conference at the Chief Minister House in Karachi. He added that the committee will only have members of the government and not from political parties. 

"I will always follow the party policy, which is that everything will be handled according to law," he said. 

CM Murad also hit out at the ruling PTI, saying that it was now “anxious” to sit with Sindh government and talk about Karachi's problems.

The chief minister alleged that the Centre was talking about the issues of Karachi to hide its failures at the international failure, hinting at the foreign minister's recent statement on Saudi Arabia. He added that the situation of Karachi and other cities had been the same more or less because of the current spell of rains that had hit the country.

“The point of sending the NDMA in Karachi was to show that there were more rains,” said CM Murad. The chief minister shared that he had a detailed conversation with the NDMA chairman about the nullahs of the city.

Talking about Sunday’s meeting, the CM said his government’s stance was very simple which was to follow the Constitution. He added that the federal government’s failure was affecting all provinces.

Sindh, Federal govt's agree on forming committee

On Sunday, it was reported that the federal and Sindh governments have agreed on forming a committee comprising representatives of the PPP, PTI and MQM, the city’s three main stakeholders. The committee will address the city’s civic issues.

A meeting was held in Islamabad, which was attended by Murad, Education Minister Saeed Ghani and Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Minister Asad Umar and Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar. Sources said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal was also present in the meeting.

The participants reportedly discussed the massive civic issues of the city compounded by recent rains and decided on working together to resolve the issues, which are affecting the daily lives of the residents of the city.

The provincial government spokesperson, Murtaza Wahab, claimed the committee would comprise PTI federal ministers Asad Umar and Ali Zaidi, Federal IT and Telecom Minister Aminul Haque of the MQM besides Sindh chief minister and provincial ministers Nasir Hussain Shah and Saeed Ghani. “The committee will see that development work is carried out smoothly in the city and remove obstacles in this regard."

The Sindh minister said that the PPP's Sindh government was always willing to work with others for improvement in the province, saying that problems could be resolved if both the governments worked together.

Later, in a video message, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah welcomed the approach of the three parties to work together, boasting that Sindh, including Karachi, had made record progress under the leadership of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Nasir said the PPP Chairman Bilawal had inaugurated development projects worth "billions of rupees, not seen in any other province of the country."

He claimed the PPP government will welcome any individual or party willing to work for Karachi's progress and said the Sindh government had welcomed the federal government and the NDMA’s initiative when it came to cleaning the city’s drains.