Accountable to provincial assembly, not prime minister, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah says

• Not answerable to PM Imran Khan or any minister, says Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah
• He said the CM is only answerable to the provincial assembly
• Sindh CM says Hesco and Sepco are running in heavy losses

KARACHI: A chief minister doesn't have to answer to anyone, including the prime minister, except the provincial assembly, says Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah.

“My answer may not be taken as negative but as a matter of fact that the chief minister is only answerable to the provincial assembly,” he said.

The Sindh CM was speaking to the media just after inaugurating the Diagnostic Complex and Dow Institute of Life Sciences at Ojha Campus. He was accompanied by Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Siraj Soomro.

Letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan

To a question about Federal Minister Ali Zaidi, the Sindh CM responded he was a responsible person and would not play on the issue in the media. “My letter was confidential and I couldn’t understand how it was leaked to the media,” he said.

Read more: Murad Ali Shah, Ali Zaidi pen complaint letters to PM Imran Khan after spat during Karachi meeting

A day earlier, it was reported that the Sindh CM and Zaidi had written letters to Prime Minister Imran Khan after a spat during a January 16 meeting of a coordination committee that overlooks development works for Karachi.

Shah, in his letter to the prime minister, said that Zaidi displayed "unruly behaviour".

Power distribution companies running in losses

The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Power Company are running in heavy losses, the CM said. “I had written a letter to the prime minister much earlier and had requested him to hand over both the companies to the Sindh government on the condition to continue the subsidy, whatever the federal government was giving to them,” he said.

Read more: NAB files reference against Murad Ali Shah in fake accounts case

The CM wanted the subsidy to continue for the next five years so that they could bring them back to the rack.

He disclosed that a Chinese government company was in contact with the provincial government to run Hesco and Sepco in partnership with the Sindh government. “I don’t know what decision the federal government has taken about handing over power distribution companies to his government,” he said.