Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that negotiations with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) are still underway and it will be premature to say if and when the MQM will join the Sindh government.
“The talks began as early as the election results were announced and the PPP won the majority in the province,” the chief minister said while talking to the media at the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (RA) in Sehwan Sharif on Sunday.
Accompanied by MPA Owais Muzaffar Hashmi and Sikandar Shoro, among others, Qaim Ali Shah earlier officially performed the concluding ceremony of the three-day Urs celebrations.
He laid “chaddar” and offered fateha at the shrine and later distributed clothes and other goods among the poor women. The chief minister also inspected the ongoing beautification and expansion works at the shrine and visited the medical camps set up by different groups outside the shrine. Responding to a question about an allegation leveled by an MQM MNA that the Sindh government was protecting the criminal elements in Karachi, the chief minister expressed sadness over the comments saying his government on its part had never hurled such accusation on any particular political party or group. About the shrine’s expansion, he said that MPA Owais Muzaffar Hashmi was personally overseeing the works on the directives of President Asif Zardari.
“We are ensuring quality work that’s why it is taking a little longer. When asked about the recurring accidents including the one which killed eight persons of a family on Sunday on the Indus Highway which connects Sehwan with other parts of the province, Qaim Ali Shah said after completion of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway the government would focus on that part of the Indus Highway.
“The cause of the accidents is the single road and over-speeding. If the people can drive carefully, specially the public transporters, accidents can be avoided,” the CM said.
