People of Sindh left at mercy of mafias, profiteers: Farrukh Habib

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib Wednesday said despite being in power in Sindh since last 13 years, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) could not improve the socioeconomic condition of the province.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s only qualification to become the party chairman was a ‘Parchi’, he said in a statement. Farrukh said there was no government in Sindh as people of the province including Karachi, Larkana, Sukkur and Hyderabad were left at the mercy of mafias and profiteers.

He said the Sindh rulers were in slumbers and people were in the throes of inflation even during the month of Ramazan. He proposed the Sindh government to spare sometime from the protocol of Bilawal and his family, and visit the vegetable, fruit and general markets of the province to see how the innocent people of Sindh were being fleeced.

He said it was a matter of concern that the prices of essential commodities in Sindh were 85% higher than the normal market prices. He said according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, live chicken was still available in Sindh at Rs385 per kilogram though its official rate was Rs138.

He said a 20 kg bag of flour was barely available in Sindh at Rs1,300 whereas fresh milk was being sold at Rs130 per litter across Sindh. Although the Sindh High Court had fixed the price of fresh milk at Rs94 per litter, the Sindh government had failed to implement it, he lamented.

Farrukh Habib said mutton was being sold at Rs1,400 per kg in different parts of Sindh including Karachi though its official rate was Rs750 per kg. He reminded that after the 18th amendment, it was responsibility of the provinces to control prices. He said most of the assistance had been distributed in Sindh under Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s flagship programme ‘Ehsas’.

He said in the past, new records of corruption had been set in Benazir Income Support Programme. He recalled that about the development programmes of Larkana, the worthy apex court judge had remarked that “even a witch leaves seven houses”.

He said cronies of Bilawal had consumed Rs14 billion of wheat and the matter was closed by the claim that rates had eaten it.

Farrukh Habib said Omni Group’s corruption and Ayan Ali’s money laundering had become his special identities. There are positions and good wages are being paid. He said that the people of Sindh should be told for what sin they were being punished for, give up their personal interests, corruption and looting and focus on eradicating the poverty of the poor man of Sindh.