Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday said that Sindh government was unnecessarily being criticised over the infant deaths in Thar despite the fact his government had provided sufficient health facilities in Tharparkar district. This he said while addressing members of Sindh High Court Bar Association at new annexee building of Sindh High Court.
He said that Sindh government had been providing wheat to affected families of the Thar for the last five years while one bag of wheat was being given to each family on monthly basis free of cost. "Over 1.6 population of Thar has taken benefit of this programme," he said.
The chief minister said that his government had installed 400 Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in Thar, adding that one plant was supplying clean drinking water to 10,000 people. He announced that 400 more RO plants would be installed there by the end of this year through which drinking water would be supplied to 1 million to 1.6 million people. Regarding media criticism over the infant deaths in Thar, he said that over 3,000 people had died in Punjab due to dengue fever in the recent years, but nobody questioned the government over such deaths however, Sindh government was unnecessarily being criticised over the Thar issue.
He claimed that best healthcare facilities were provided to the Mithi district headquarters hospital with air-conditioned rooms and 24 incubators, which was not even available in Karachi in such a large number. Besides, he said, mobile dispensaries were also provided while 49 basic health units were set-up, which were providing health facilities round the clock.
He maintained that the Thar had cultural issues, adding that it had not received adequate rains while subsoil water was available at the depth of 135 meters, which too was not fit for human consumption. He said the firms of China, Australia and England would soon establish power plants in the province which would generate 6000 Megawatts electricity to be supplied to the national grid. The government was also providing licenses to the foreign firms to generate electricity through windmills, which are already adding 300 MW to the national grid. Qaim Ali Shah claimed that his government would overcome the electricity shortage in the province. He added that the government had also improved roads network in Thar, adding that the portion of road from Thatta-Badin was not less than the standards of the Lahore-Islamabad motorway.
He said that politicians also strive for the protection of the fundamental human rights like the lawyers and do everything under the Constitution same as the high courts.The chief minister said that the courts too work for the protection of the basic human rights, however, he said media blasts minor issues and the judiciary takes notice of the same. Shah said that he himself was one of the senior most lawyers and thanked the bar association for awarding him life time membership. He said that the country cannot run without Constitution and they were still facing the consequences of the dictatorship eras.
He said that his party had formed government in the province in difficult times in 2008 when there was neither democracy nor money in the national exchequer in the province. Sindh was under debt of Rs 20 billion, but we did not bend down and served the masses, he said. "Whenever free and fair elections are held in the country the Pakistan Peoples Party wins," he claimed adding that the results of the 2008 and 2013 general elections and the recent local bodies' elections were clear evidence of the party's services to the masses.
Rejecting the opposition's claims regarding rigging in the local government polls, he said that the election commission of Pakistan and the judiciary may take note, if the elections were rigged in the province. He said that funds were being provided to the headmaster at the school's level adding that the budgeting system had been decentralised where the retired teachers and lecturers were supervising the funds utilisation. He maintained that budget allocation in health and education had been increased three time in his tenure. The chief minister said that work was done on promotion of the higher education, as the number of the universities in the province had been increased from two to nine in the last four or five years adding that the establishment of one university cost Rs 400 million to Rs 500 million. Shah said that his government had refused to take grant from the federal government under the Prime Minister's Health Programme and asked them to invest in major schemes instead of the minor ones. He also announced a grant of Rs 10 million for the SHCBA, promised to resolve the issue of imposition of services tax on the lawyers. Lawyer protest over his missing son: A senior lawyer lodged strong protest with Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah over non-recovery of his son, who was missing since last four years.