‘Corruption in Sindh halted its prosperity’: PM Imran Khan

GHOTKI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Sindh should have been a prosperous province of the country, ‘but corruption pushed it backwards,’ ARY News reported.

Addressing a public gathering in Ghotki here on Saturday, PM khan said that Sindh had all the resources to be a prosperous province of Pakistan.

“It is a province rich in gas production and crop cultivation, but it still has the poverty more than the entire country. And it’s because of corruption”, he said.

PM Khan said corruption even pushed countries with most resources into poverty. “Congo is rich in all kinds of mineral resources, but the corrupt leadership has ruined the country,” he added.

The prime minister said Ghotki produced 70 per cent of the total gas produced by the province. “The city has 250 gas wells, but mismanagement has ruined the structure”, he said.

Imran Khan said it was surprising to discover that Sindh had generated Rs 234 billion in gas royalty in the last ten years. “A meagre share was given to Ghotki in the total National Finance Commission (NFC) awards given in the past years. This is corruption”, he stated.

He lamented that corruption-tainted money was sent abroad through money laundering and illegal channels. “When we go after the culprits, the clamours begin to erupt that democracy is in danger,” he said.

Read: “Ehsas”, “Sehat Insaf Card” programs to extend in Sindh: PM Khan

He took exception that a ‘train march’ had been launched to ‘hide corruption’. In a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leadership, he claimed the train march leaders had ‘distributed Rs 2,000 each among the people to take part in the march.’

He reiterated that the current government would not spare the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP for their corrupt practices. “There is only one way out; if they return the looted public money, we will spare them.”

“Both the parties are now uniting to hide each other’s corruption,” said the prime minister.

He recalled that PTI remained on the streets for months against corruption and remained persistent with its call for holding ‘free and fair elections’.

He said it was disappointing to see infrastructure in Sindh ruining. PM Khan said a huge confrontation was going on in Punjab over Panama Papers and those named in the scam. “We exposed those who plundered the national wealth and fought against them”, he added.

Khan said the health cards launched by his government would provide up to Rs 7,20,000 to each household availing the facility.

He said the government would soon reach rural districts and give people, especially women, interest-free loans, and stressed on learning from ‘Chinese model’ to end poverty.

The prime minister said police were often used in Sindh for registering false cases to suppress the opponents. “People are made slaves with the use of force”, he said.

The prime minister vowed to keep visiting the province, adding that new discoveries of resources would help in uplifting the backward areas.

“We will form a plan for the entire province by taking all opposition parties on board,” said Imran Khan.

Earlier he stated that the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, made his country prosperous under democracy. “The Malaysian prime minister visited Pakistan on my request,” he added. Khan said he grew up watching Pakistan as one of the developing countries in Asia, but “it is now under debt”.

He said the corrupt governments in the past had also rendered Malaysia in debt, but it had now steered itself out of the crisis.