KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday lashed out at the Sindh government for “depriving Karachi of its due share” in the provincial budget.

“Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah only mentions Sindh’s 70 percent revenue contribution to the national kitty but does not have the moral courage to acknowledge that Karachi alone contributes around 99 percent of the 70 percent revenue,” Kamal told a press conference at the Pakistan House.

He alleged that 250,000 people were given jobs on fake domiciles, 58% of Sindh’s budget was being spent under the head of salaries of 500,000 employees as “political bribe”.

Kamal said that the chief minister did not keep any money for development works in the province, especially in Karachi.

The province has a budget of some 58% for 500,000 government employees while only 42% for the 50 million people of Sindh.

Punjab spends 33% of its budget on employees while the population of Punjab and government employees are much higher than the population of Sindh and government employees, he pointed out.

He said that lava was brewing in Karachi and Hyderabad “due to all the injustices of the PPP, and the PTI’s giving a free hand to the PPP in Sindh”. The federal government should come forward and heal the plight of urban Sindh.

Kamal said that the anti-encroachment operation was a big issue at the moment. The Chief Justice has given instructions against encroachments, including demolition orders of Nasla Tower.

However, the buyers have invested their life-long earnings in these projects after seeing legal documents from the builders concerned, he said and added that institutions and their officers who were giving the NOCs at the place of encroachment were not being questioned. The PSP appealed to the apex court to reconsider its decision.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021