HYDERABAD, Mar 05 (APP):The Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said that Pakistan Peoples Party is eying on the throne of Islamabad while its former stronghold is showing portentously deep political fissures.
Addressing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Huqooq-e-Sindh march’s public meeting in Tandojam on Saturday, Qureshi said if he would have been in place of PPP’s co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari he would have cancelled the party’s long march to Islamabad.
“Because my eyes are watching that a serious rupture is occurring in the political embankments of Sindh. and if that crack keeps widening, a flood will follow,” he said, speaking figuratively.
“It may consequently not happen that you become occupied with your march in Islamabad and Sindh goes away from your hands,” he added.
He contended that he foresaw a change in the political atmosphere of Sindh which would transform the province and make it prosperous.
“I see the people who are standing up for the change in Sindh as the raindrops of hops. When these raindrops keep growing they will turn into a flood,” he observed.
He asked the people of Sindh to give one chance of 5 years to rule Sindh to Prime Minister Imran Khan after they gave 3 consecutive terms of 5 years each to the PPP.
He argued that the people of Punjab, KPK, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan also used to fear that their votes would not mean anything and the status quo would remain intact.
However, the FM said KPK rejected the former ruling elites in 2013, Punjab followed in 2018, Azad Kashmir in 2021 and GB this year.
Qureshi said Khan wanted to give health insurance cards to Hyderabad and other
cities of Sindh but the provincial government continued to remain an obstacle.
“If this hindrance is removed, we will tomorrow announce health cards for the province,” he assured.
However, he noted that after the 18th constitutional amendment the center could not intervene in many of the provincial subjects.
The FM said the PTI’s government passed the bill in the National Assembly for establishment of a federal public sector university in Hyderabad.
However, he deplored, the provincial government was opposing its establishment. He informed that the PM would soon come to Sindh to lay the foundation stone for the Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway.
Qureshi said after conclusion of the PTI’s long march in Karachi on March 6 he would head to Islamabad to brief the PM about the march which moved through all parts of Sindh in 9 days.
“So that we can prepare for the remaining 18 months which are left before the next general election. We will announce an effective strategy for Sindh and give targets to our workers and local leaders.
And, I hope they will accept the challenge,” he said. The Ports and Shipping Federal Minister Ali Zaidi said some people gave counsel of despair to Khan about PTI’s march in Sindh.
However, he added, the PM remained unmoved by those fearsome projections that the march would not receive the public response and that he gave the party’s leaders the go ahead for the march.
“When our march started the caravan kept growing,” he observed. He assailed performance of the PPP’s Sindh government pointing out that a 14 years old overhead bridge project in Hyderabad, named Shaheed Benazir Bhutto flyover, could not be completed even after so long.
He said on one hand the Sindh Government was closing 5,000 schools and on the other hand the Federal government wanted to establish a university in Hyderabad.
“But the Sindh government is not providing NOC for the varsity. They are not giving you health cards or carrying out infrastructure development,” he noted.
The minister said he considered the internecine struggle among the PTI workers for the positions of the office bearers of the district and local chapters as a healthy sign.
He contended that the race for the positions showed that the people of Sindh were taking deep interest in the party and have attached their
hopes with Khan.
The Opposition Leader Haleem Adil, PTI Hyderabad’s leader Khawand Bux Jahejo and other leaders also spoke.