KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the federal government, considering the province of Sindh as a colony of Islamabad, has decided to carry out it development works through a company, Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Limited (SIDCL), which was unacceptable.
This he said on Wednesday while addressing a press conference here at Auditorium of Sindh Assembly. He was accompanied by Senior Advisor Nisar Khuhro, Information Minister Syed Nasir Shah, Advisor Murtaza Wahab and Special Assistant to CM Javed Nayab Leghari.
He said that the province of Sindh has not been given any new scheme in the next proposed, 2020-21 PSDP, except two energy schemes, including power and gas connections for Dhabeji Special Economic Zone.
He said that the prime minister held National Economic Council (NEC) meeting through video link. "NEC is a constitutional body formed under Article 156 of the constitution and it has to meet twice in a year but the prime minister during his two years tenure has held only two meetings," he said and disclosed that the prime minister assured him that he would convene NEC meeting very soon and onward these meetings would be held as envisaged in the constitution.
Shah said that the NEC meeting was scheduled to be held in Islamabad but at the eleventh hour he was told that the chief ministers and other members from the province would join the meeting from their offices through video link. "I was surprised that the prime minister chaired a seven-hour long cabinet meeting which was not a constitutional body - it has been defined in rules of business where as the NEC was a constitutional body and it should have been held on a single table to discuss the economic growth, PSDP and other issues falling under its domain.
He said that NEC was a 13-member body and it could have been held under the prime minister in Islamabad. "I took up the matter before prime minister and he disclosed that the direction to the chief minister were not given by him," he disclosed.
Shah said that the NEC meeting had six agenda items but he would discuss only two items, they include Annual Plan, 2019-20 and 2020-21 and indicators of economic growth that is how agriculture and industrial sectors would grow in the next financial year so that necessary planning could be made accordingly.
He said that the in 2019-20 growth target was estimated at 4 Percent but later on it turned out to be minus 0.4 percent. He added that in 2018-19 the growth target was 6.2 percent which also turned out to be 1.9 percent growth. "This is a huge difference and I had pointed it out in the NEC meeting," he said.
He said that the federal government told the meeting that their overall tax collection was 31 percent higher than the last year because non-tax revenues were high. "This is right because they [Fed govt] have issued some licenses from where their collection has shows a growth but during the last 11 months the FBR has collected Rs3.5 trillion against a target of Rs5.5 trillion," he disclosed. He added that the province of Sindh was told that it would receive Rs835 billion against which the Sindh was receiving Rs606 billion. "This shows a shortfall of Rs229 billion and it has badly affected our over development portfolio," he lamented.
He also complained that during the NEC meeting his mic was muted and then he took up the matter on which the prime minister denied of issuing such orders and said he would give opportunity to each and every chief minister to express their views. "This is what the staff of the prime minister secretariat was doing with him," he said.
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