Skip to main content

PM urged to directly release funds to Karachi, Hyderabad LGs

KARACHI: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday and demanded that Islamabad provide funds directly to the local governments of Karachi and Hyderabad so that they could carry out emergency basic infrastructure works in the two urban centres of Sindh.

A brief statement issued by the PM Office on Friday said the meeting was held in Islamabad at the prime minister’s chamber in the Parliament House.

The MQM-P side was led by its convener and federal minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui while the prime minister was assisted by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and the PM’s special assistants Naeemul Haq and Nadeem Afzal Chann.

MQM-P spokesman Aminul Haq, an MNA who also attended Friday’s meeting, told Dawn that PM’s point man Jahangir Khan Tareen — who had played a pivotal role in forging a coalition with the MQM-P — was also present in the meeting.

While the official statement said nothing about the matters discussed in the meeting, Mr Haq said the prime minister assured the MQM-P of his full cooperation in directly releasing special funds to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) — both controlled by the mayors of the MQM-P.

MQM-P delegation also discusses with Imran issues of university, missing persons

“We demanded the prime minister release [development] funds directly to the KMC and HMC,” he said, adding the MQM-P had already sought Rs25bn for Karachi and Rs5bn for Hyderabad for improving the ruined civic infrastructure in the two cities.

He said the MQM-P delegation urged the prime minister to release the first instalment of funds for Karachi and Hyderabad at the earliest.

However, Mr Haq evaded a question as to how the federal government would bypass the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government to release funds to the Karachi and Hyderabad local governments directly.

He said the MQM-P also demanded early completion of the K-IV water supply project. He said the prime minister assured them that the federal government would soon release its share in the funding for the project and ensure its timely completion.

Mr Haq said the prime minister was also requested to direct the authorities concerned to make Hyderabad University functional as soon as possible.

When asked whether the MQM-P, which got two federal ministries, had raised the issue of a third ministry, he said: “This issue did not come under discussion.”

Mr Haq said the MQM-P representatives also raised the issue of missing workers of their party and urged the prime minister to play his role, as promised earlier, in tracing their whereabouts and releasing them.

He said the prime minister agreed in principle that all missing persons needed to be recovered as soon as possible.

He said the defence minister would coordinate with theMQM-P in sorting out a mechanism to trace and recover the missing persons.

Besides Dr Siddiqui and Mr Haq, MNAs Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Usama Qadri, Kishwar Zehra and Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, the prime minister also met MNAs Mohammad Afzal Khan Dhandla, Asim Nazir, Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar and Tahir Iqbal separately in his chamber at the Parliament House on Friday.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Naeemul Haq was present in the meetings.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2019



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2IXDh5C
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rouhani calls Imran, discusses resumption of trade

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran on Wednesday discussed full resumption of bilateral trade, which was halted last month because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The two sides stressed the need to reactivate borders and border markets and strengthen trade ties by following health guidelines,” a statement issued by the Iranian presidency on the telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Dr Hassan Rouhani said. President Rouhani had called the prime minister for Ramazan greetings. Border trade between the two countries was suspended after a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), held on March 13, decided to close all borders because of the pandemic. Islamabad partially relaxed the restrictions on April 21, allowing the import of certain food items and provision of petrol and diesel to the border areas. Cargo traffic from Iran was allowed for three days every week. Cargo movement between the two countries takes place through five border crossings — Taftan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Today’s outlook: Sindh CM discusses reopening markets with PM Khan

Here are some of the stories we are expecting to follow today (Thursday): Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah will take Prime Minister Imran Khan into confidence over reopening shops and markets across the province. The reopened markets will have to follow SOPs. Sindh Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah will discuss SOPs with transporters for resuming public transport in the coming days. The meeting will be held at the Sindh Assembly building at 1:30pm. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has proposed a price cut of Rs20.68 per litre for petrol in its summary. Imam-e-Kaaba Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais has said Masjid Al Haram and Masjid Al Nabawi will be reopened for worshipers soon. He said the Kaaba is being sterilised using latest technologies. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will head various meetings during his visit to Bahawalpur. As of Thursday, Pakistan has reported more than 15,500 confirmed coronavirus cases. ICYMI: An amendment to the National Accountability Or...
Post a Comment
Read more

If Pakistani elderly self-distance infections could drop 30%: study

If we do nothing, COVID-19 could infect 206 million Pakistanis and kill 691,000. This is the estimation of researchers from the Imperial College London COVID-19 Response Team who have published country-wise projections in a March 26 report ‘ The Global Impact of COVID-19 and Strategies for Mitigation and Suppression ’ Furthermore, using an infection fatality rate from China, this means 4.4 million Pakistanis would require hospitalisation and from among those, 917,000 individuals would require critical care. Pakistan has a population of 220 million people. The research is based on the infection fatality rate from China, country health care system capacities and that one person with coronavirus is likely to infect 3 others. (You can find the excel sheet with Pakistan numbers here: Imperial-College-COVID19-Global-unmitigated-mitigated-suppression-scenarios.xlsx ) Forty-seven researchers crunched the numbers and made these projections to give countries, including Pakistan, some idea of...
Post a Comment
Read more