KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday that the Sindh Assembly had put a “full stop” to calls for a new province or administrative units in Sindh, and that only the province’s people could decide its future.
“The PPP’s position on the province issue is clear and has been stated repeatedly,” Bilawal told reporters in Lyari after inaugurating the restored Spencer Eye Hospital. “The people of Sindh and their elected representatives have given their decision. Only the people of Sindh can decide Sindh’s fate.” It was not the job of politicians to spread hatred and division among people, he added.
Asked whether the federal government or its coalition partners had consulted the PPP on a proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment, which has been reported to include changes to the 18th Amendment, Bilawal said they had not.
‘Not a penny’s worth of work’
Bilawal turned on members of the federal cabinet from Karachi. “Those from Karachi who are part of the federal cabinet have not done a penny’s worth of work for the city,” he said, accusing them of “spreading hatred” in Karachi instead. He said the city, as Pakistan’s economic hub, needed federal, provincial and local institutions to work together, and urged the federal government to pay it more attention.
With inflation and unemployment high and electricity bills squeezing households, he said the Sindh government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation were trying to ease the burden. The Spencer Eye Hospital, which opened in 1940, now runs on solar power, and Bilawal said he wanted to extend similar arrangements across Lyari to give residents cheaper electricity.
The provinces debate
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui with Mustafa Kamal and Farooq Sattar, has been the main voice for new administrative units in Sindh, arguing that Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban areas need more control over their resources and services. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has also backed more provinces or administrative units, saying the current system had failed to deliver justice and opportunity.
The PPP rejects any division of Sindh. On September 3, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution opposing any move to split the province or detach its districts. Under Article 239(4) of the Constitution, any amendment changing a province’s boundaries needs the approval of two-thirds of the total membership of that province’s assembly before it can go to the president.
