Sindh Information Minister Shazia Mari on Wednesday condemned the statement of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif about the pharmaceutical factories in Karachi and alleged that Sharif brothers had always tried to create differences among the provinces.
She said this while addressing a hurriedly called press conference at New Sindh Secretariat building. Director Information Tariq Khero, Moiz Pirzada and others were also present on the occasion.
The Information Minister said that Shahbaz Sharif, who holds 18 portfolios including the Health, was sleeping when people in Punjab were dying of drug reaction but he only awoke to put the blame of deaths on pharmaceutical factories in Karachi instead of accepting his negligence.
Mari said that Karachi was the economic hub of the country, which contributes over 65 percent of revenue in divisible pool. "If there is a factory, which produces substandard medicines, it doesn't mean that all factories here are doing the same," she added.
The Information Minister said that Shahbaz Sharif should appreciate the contribution of Karachi as more than 70 percent of the country's industries were operating from the city.
She said that the FIA raided a factory in Karachi on the directives of Interior Minister Rehman Malik but the Punjab government had not written a single letter to Sindh government in this regard.
"There is a strong mechanism of drug testing in every province and when tenders were being opened and supply was completed where was the Chief Executive of Punjab at that time?" she questioned.
Mari said that the supply of substandard drugs to the hospitals of Punjab and the subsequent deaths of more than 100 people due to reaction had exposed the performance of the provincial government.
She said that deaths were happening in Punjab since December 12, 2011, but the PPP had never taken these deaths for political point scoring.
"When Shahbaz Sharif feared that he was loosing his government, he hit the Sindh government instead of accepting his negligence," she said.
She said that Sharif brothers were habitual of blaming others for their own faults as they had earlier put the responsibility of deaths due to dengue fever on the federal government.
Mari termed Sharif brothers "inefficient and immature" adding that they had miserably failed in the field of politics and governance. She advised Shahbaz Sharif to grow up and grow out of the complex of Punjabi's and Lahorities.