MQM is silent despite decreasing allocations for Karachi in federal budget: Ghani

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Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has said that there has been a constant decrease in allocations in the federal budgets for Karachi’s development schemes for the last three years, but despite this dismal situation the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which champions the cause of urban Sindh, has been silent over this injustice with the city.Talking to journalists at the Sindh Assembly here on Saturday, he said the Sindh government had once more the allocation for the development of Karachi in the provincial budget for 2019-2019.“The MQM is pointing fingers at Sindh’s budget and saying that we have allocated lesser funds in the budget, but this is sheer propaganda,” he said.Ghani said merely Rs12 billion had been allocated in the new federal budget for the development schemes of Karachi, and the allocation in the federal budget in the outgoing financial year stood at Rs17 billion. He added that in the federal budget of the financial year before the last Rs27 billion had been reserved for the development schemes of Karachi.The minister said that the MQM used to raise a hue and cry over the issue of water scarcity in Karachi, but it never questioned the federal government as to why it had not been providing funds for the mega projects of K-IV and S-III vital for the water and drainage systems in the city.“The MQM is used to raising a hue and cry just for the sake of its affinity with the ministries and lucrative posts as the moment it gets ministries and posts, it becomes silent,” he said.Ghani was of the view that the MQM was no more a true representative political party of the Urdu-speaking community living in Sindh, especially in its urban parts.The MQM, he said, was once more engaged in intrigues to frighten the Urdu-speaking population in the province so to make them stand under its umbrella so as to effectively blackmail both the provincial and federal governments.He said that the Urdu-speaking community living in Karachi, Hyderabad, and other urban parts of Sindh had made itself free from the shackles of violent tactics of the MQM comprising terrorism, extortion of money, violence and rioting.He alleged that the MQM had a history of doing compromises on the genuine interests of its supporters. “Now once more they have blackmailed the federal government over this people-unfriendly budget, which would cause price hike, so as to make an attempt to secure one more [federal] ministry for itself and after doing so it will keep silence over this budget,” he said.The minister claimed that the PPP’s Sindh government had completed a number of development projects in Karachi and more such schemes at present were being completed in the city.He said that the provincial government’s budget for financial year 2019-20 contained a number of a new development schemes.In a press conference held at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad on Friday, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for “ignoring” the province’s two major urban megacities in the provincial budget. He said Karachi and Hyderabad had been facing this “economic terrorism” for at least 10 years despite contributing most to the economy of the country.Siddiqui, who is a federal minister, discussed the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 and said his party totally rejected the budget that was not only “anti-people” but also “biased and anti-urban centers”.

from The News International - Karachi http://bit.ly/2X0aJRp
The News International - Karachi