28 FIRs registered against Bahria Town protesters

Twenty-eight FIRs have been registered against people for ransacking and setting fire to the shops inside Karachi’s Bahria Town on June 6.

Two have been filed by government officials for damaging public property, one by Bahria, one by FWO, and 24 by private persons, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah while addressing a press conference on Monday.

He shared that 120 people were arrested during the protest, while

36 were identified through footage. Six people have been released, while others have been granted bail.

Sindh saw a very critical phase in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s and now, we won’t allow people to take land in their hands.

“We won’t allow protesters to turn to violence,” he said, adding that if such a would emerge the law would take its course. “If you come onto the road and raise slogans against Pakistan then what difference would there be between us and Altaf Hussain?”

Tax collection

“We are facing a shortfall of Rs82 billion in federal transfers, therefore our entire budgetary commitments have been affected badly,” he claimed. Majority of taxes were collected by the federal government and then they transfer the share to the provincial governments according to the agreement.

The federal government claims that the national economy has shown growth, he said and added that had the economy been showing the growth the FBR targets would have not been revised. “The FBR had a target of Rs4.89 trillion, but they failed and then the government revised the target to Rs4.71 trillion.”

The CM said that the FBR has shown a growth of 17% during the last three years, but the Sindh Revenue Board has shown a growth of 21%.

“Our growth rate is four percent higher than the FBR,” he said, adding that he was criticizing the performance of the FBR because their failure to achieve the targets affected the provincial share in the revenue.

Shah remarked that the Sindh government was told that it would be given Rs742 billion from the divisible pool and straight transfers and we had framed our budget accordingly. At the end of the day, the federal government revised the Sindh government share from Rs742 billion to Rs680 billion that caused a Rs62 billion shortfall just in revision. He added that during the last 11 months, the Sindh government has received 82.5 billion short of its share.

Census

Talking about the census, the chief minister said that he had submitted a defection note in CCI when it was approved. “I have referred the matter to Parliament and a joint session would be called to discuss the matter,” he said. 

He said that the family size of households in Sindh has been shown less than the other provinces. Had the actual family size of households in Sindh been counted the population of the province would have been more than 62 million. “Since, our population has been curtailed under the defective census, therefore our share in the national resources has also come down,” he said. 

Water shortage

Shah said that he was not accusing any province of stealing water but his grievance was against the federal government which did not allow the IRSA to implement the 1991 water accord in true letter and spirit. 

He said that the water shortage in respect of 1991 accord in the Punjab during the month of May 2021, on the basis of 10 dailies, was recorded at 20.27% in the first 10-daily, 5.08% in the second 10-daily, 10.23% in the third 10-daily. In Sindh, during the first daily water shortage was recorded at 34.5%, 39.8% during the second 10-daily and 40.27% during the third 10-dailies. 

Shah said that during June 1 to 10, Sindh and Balochistan faced a 35% shortage and Punjab faced 23% shortage, while KP received 38% more water than its share. “We are of the view that the shortages should be shared equally as per water accord,” he said and added 

Gas shortage

Sindh was facing a gas shortage which was also a violation of Article 158 of the constitution. “The constitution under article 158 gives priority to the people of the area from where gas is produced but this is not happening here,” he said.

He remarked that being chief executive of the province it was his duty to protect the rights of the people of the province. Hydel profits were given to the KP and he had always been supporting it because it was constitutional but “when we talk about our rights, we are accused of promoting provincialism.”