KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the amount recovered by NAB in plea bargain and volunteer return from other provinces was much higher than the amount recovered from Sindh but even then Sindh was being branded as most corrupt province in the country which he termed quite deplorable.

Chief Minister said that he won’t mind if he was criticized but he would never allow criticism my monther land, Sindh. Sindh is the land of love, fraternity and peace.

He said that he was 121st  member of the assembly who was participating in the debate on budget from the last 45 to 46  hours.

While speaking at Sindh Assembly delivering concluding debate on the budget here on Tuesday at the floor of the Sindh Assembly,  CM added that PPP has 99 members, of them 62 members have participated spoke for around 2o hours. PTI has 30 members, of them 99 percent have participated in the debate. MQM has 23 members, of them 19 members participated which showed a 90 percent participation. Out of 14 GDA  members, 10 have participated in the debate.  TLP has three members and two of them participated. “This shows that the opposition has been given ample time to discuss the budget but even then they are complaining of not allowing to speak,” he regretted.

CM Sindh said that in the National Assembly 40 percent discussion have been made on the budget. PTI has 126 members and they have been allowed to speak for 18 hours, the PML- N has 84 members of them 30 percent were allowed to speak.

He said in Punjab assembly only 26 percent members were allowed to participate in the budget discussion, while in KPK assembly 30 percent and in Balochistan over 14 percent members were allowed to participate in the debate on the budget. “This is an ample proof our democratic approach to accommodate the opposition in the debate,” he said.

Sindh provincial Head responding to the questions raised by the Leader of opposition in his budget speech said that the federal government had informed Sindh government in the beginning of their tenure that Sindh would be given Rs665 bn. In June the Federal government disclosed that Sindh would be Rs632 billion. In the end of this month, the federal government again said that it would give only Rs492 billion to Sindh. “This shows a shortfall of Rs173 billion if the actual figures of Rs665 billion are taken into account,” he said and added the fed govt still owed Rs126 billion to SIndh.

He disclosed that the overall collection of the federal government was Rs4.15 trillion.

The federal government has said that in the next financial year they would give Rs200 billion more to Sindh than the current financial year but it did not appear to be materializing to him. He prayed for the federal government to achieve the recoveries the target because it would benefit the provinces.

Chief Minister said that the federal government during the financial year of 2017-18 had collected Rs3.27 trillion and this year it has collected Rs3.31 trillion. This shows only 1.2 per cent increase. Sindh has shown an increase of over six percent in its revenue collection.

Murad Shah said that Punjab has spent Rs126 billion of its Rs238 billion ADP while Sindh has utilized Rs 110 billion against the releases of Rs130 billion. The size of l ADP is Rs252billion in 2018-19 and the new ADP of 2019-20 has been made at Rs223 billion.

Mr Shah said that he wanted to give a raise of 25 in the salaries of the government employees but due to financial crunch could only offer Rs15 percent raise which would put an impact of Rs26 billion on the provincial exchequer. He added that he had enhanced operative expenditures budget from Rs102 billion in 2018-19 to Rs106 billion in 2019-20.

Talking about NICVD, NICH and JPMC, the chief minister said that the supreme court in its decision has said that the federal government would have to repay the provincial government all the expenditures it had incurred on these hospitals from 2011 which according to the chief minister would come to over Rs30 billion. “This year the federal government has not allocated a single penny for these hospitals,” he said and added that his government has allocated Rs15 billion for NICVD, JPMC and NICH and the provincial government would also give a grant of Rs5.6 billion to SIUT and Rs6.5 billion to PPHI.

The federal government had fixed GDP at 6.2 percent and now they have revised it at 3.3 percent but he doubted that they would again fail to achieve it. He said that inflation rate during the PTI government has reached to 9.7 percent and dollar has reached to Rs157 and the stock market has dropped from 42,000 point to 35,000 points. “These indicators of the national economy show your [PTI govt] inefficiency to handle the national economy in the national interest,” he said.

Mr Shah said that the federal government deleted 36 schemes of the province of Sindh from its PSDP. “last year three chief ministers had boycotted the CCI meeting but this year the prime minister himself boycotted it,” he surprised.

The chief minister said that federal government has allocated Rs12 billion for different development schemes of Karachi. These schemes include Rs2.5 billion for Green Line project, construction of Jam Chakro Road, construction of a flyover on Sher Shah Suri Road, construction of Fly over on Jinnah Avenue, Construction of Dum Loti road and others. He said that the K-IV project has been ignored by the federal government in its next budget.

Chief Minister said that the Sindh government has given third party designing work of K-IV to Nespak which was a federal government institution. He offered the federal government to financially support Sindh government to complete the k-IV project and simultaneously initiate an inquiry against its mounting cost.

Talking about KCR, Mr Shah said that he had approached the federal government of Nawaz Sharif to give Right of Way for KCR to Sindh government, hand over KUTC to Sindh government and also give the same financial package to KCR  as it had given to Green Line in Lahore. The prime minister agreed but advised to talk to Ministry of railway for ROW.

He said that the provincial government has allocated Rs61 billion for different development schemes of Karachi while the federal government has allocated only Rs12 billion. This is the ownership the provincial government was giving to Karachi, the chief minister said. “We would establish Red Line with the Assistance of Asian Development Bank at the cost of $561 million,” Shah said.

Responding to an observation of leader of the opposition, Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government had sent him Audit report to Sindh Governor to lay it in the assembly but still it has not been laid. This correspondence is between the assembly secretariat and the Governor, he said.

Talking about Auditor General’s report, the chief minister said that it had raised objections against 38 percent spending of the provincial government while the objections of  Auditor General against KPK government’s spending had been recorded at 58 percent of their total development spending last year and 68 percent spending this year 2018-19. He said that embezzlement and fraud of Rs1.6 billion had also been pointed out by Auditor General of Pakistan in KPK.

Comparing corruption in other provinces with Sindh, the chief minister said that in in 2017 there were 114 cases of plea bargain in KPK amounting to Rs1.27 billion, 46 cases of Rs1.337 billion in Balochistan, 170 cases of Rs1.59 billion in Punjab and 69 cases of Rs1.53 billion in Sindh which include a case of EOBI of Rs853 billion – the EOBI is a federal institution. This shows a minimum plea bargain cases amount in Sindh, he pointed out.

He said that from January 1, 2006 to 2016, KPK unearthed Rs1.28 billion misappropriation in KPK and Rs676 million in Balochistan, Rs9.45 billion in Punjab and Rs4.5 billion in Sindh.

He said that the Volunteer Return (VR)  to NAB was reported at Rs440 million in Balochistan, Rs1.8 billion in KPK, Rs3.1 billion in Sindh and Rs60.6 billion in Punjab. “I am quite surprised that even then Sindh was being branded as most corrupt province in the country,” he deplored.

Murad Ali Shah said that he and his leadership and the party leaders and workers were not afraid of the fake and fictitious cases. “We have been facing these cases from last many decades and would be facing them onward bravely,” he said. CM said that he was personally monitoring the progress and pace of the on-going development projects in Karachi but due to financial crunch and shortfall in the federal transfers he could not release maximum funds to complete them but they would be completed shortly, he assured.

He urged the Urdu speaking SIndhis to own this land of Sindh and be loyal with it as other Mohajirs like Syeds, Duranis and various others have owned it and became Sindhis.