KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Sindh has urged the federal government to remove all the obstacles in the way of Sindh receiving international help directly to start rehabilitation and reconstruction programme that the provincial government had prepared.
PPP Sindh General Secretary Taj Haider, in his statement, said the province continued to suffer as the resources needed for draining out the standing water and rehabilitation were not reaching it expeditiously. Looking at the scale of the vast devastation in the province many friendly countries as well as international financial institutions were keen to come forward in a big way.
The federal bureaucracy, however, was creating technical hitches, he said. These ministries like Economic Affairs Division were enjoying all the discretion of how and where the incoming resources would be used or whether a loan or grant would be accepted or not, he added.
“Those trying to help Sindh clearly do not want to get stuck with the red tape and it is a pity that while others want to help us, we, through our cumbersome procedures, are discouraging them,” he said.
Taj Haider pointed out that the amended Article 167 (18th Amendment) gave the provinces the right to raise domestic or international loan and the provision [Article 270 AA (8)] that items of the Concurrent Legislative List would be devolved to the provinces by 30th June was not a limiting provision.
It was passed with the aim and purpose of accelerating the devolution process, he added. Taj Haider requested the Federal Implementation Commission on Devolution, headed by Senator Raza Rabbani, to take notice of the grim situation resulting from the inability of Sindh to mobilise International support
directly for its flood affectees and to clear the path by issuing an unambiguous statement in this regard and advising the federation accordingly.
