Sindh govt focusing on energy, PPP mode, poverty reduction: CM

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali on Wednesday said that the provincial government was now focusing more on energy, regional development, reducing inequity, and public private partnership programmes.

The chief minister while addressing the Sindh Development Forum 2018 attended by the country heads of nineteen donor agencies, termed the last decade of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government at federal and provincial level as an era of peace, progress and prosperity.

“When we were in power, we faced enormous challenges of law and order, rising inequity and poverty, and weakening federation,” he said adding individuals and institutions felt hapless due to the daunting challenges.

CM Sindh said the precarious law and order situation fueled uncertainty and caused capital flight, which increased poverty and led to violence and crime. He added that the key to breaking this vicious cycle was to overcome terrorism, sectarian violence, and organised crime.

The chief minister said it is matter of pride that since 2013 the extent of such incidents has reduced tremendously, and as a result confidence of business community and foreign investors has improved, which is witnessed by generally improving economic conditions and keen Chinese interest in Special Economic Zones in Sindh.

He said that another testament is the jubilant final of Pakistan Super League (PSL) in which whole Pakistan was the winner.

All provincial governments using BISP

CM Sindh said one major challenge was the commodity price shock of mid-2000s which pushed many people below poverty line especially poor farmers, and that the right response was to come up with social safety net.

“It is no secret that BISP is the flagship safety net in Pakistan, starting from a social safety net, BISP have now grown into comprehensive social protection programme,” he said adding it has a national socioeconomic registry, transparent criteria for beneficiary identification and targeting, and possibilities of embedding graduation strategies.

He went on saying this program was initiated for consumption smoothening is now being used for variety of socioeconomic interventions such Waseela-e-Sehet,  Waseela-e-Taleem, Khidmst Card, etc. He said that all provincial governments are using BISP for launching social and economic sectors programmes.

PPP pushed devolution of resources against all odds

The chief minister said that sustainable decline in poverty can only be realised by using bottom up approaches and they have embarked on community development investment for poverty reduction.

“It should especially be noted that community development is not politically attractive as its positive effects manifests only after long period. However, despite the political risks, the government started the program and it has been a great success and now federal government has requested our partner to help in replicating the similar programme in other parts of country,” he said.

He said they are leveraging upon the investment since 2009, and using the social capital for launching poverty reduction program. He disclosed that rural growth centers will be launched in the 2018-19 budget to achieve poverty reduction.

CM Sindh said that they believe in strong federation but are clear that strength between federating units lies in fairness of resource distribution, and that federation weakens due to inequity.

He said the PPP government pushed the devolution of resources against all odds from those who wanted to perpetuate the concentration of resources and unfairness.  He claimed that whole decentralized planning would not have started if devolution had not happened.

He further that the current provincial regime is leveraging on the foundation established in the last tenure, and their approach focuses on regional sources of growth, strengthening social and economic equity, adopting fiscal measures for resource generation and finally, using public private partnership.

Thar coal is premise of energy sovereignty in Pakistan

Talking about Thar coal, the chief minister forsaken project was brought it to life by the premise of energy sovereignty of Pakistan is based on Thar coal deposits.

“The whole idea of energy-related CPEC investment would not have found firm ground if Thar coal fields were not developed,” he said adding that the government paved the way for investment in energy production and transmission.

He said that the government has been working hard on resource availability from various sources, particularly working for increasing own resources and using public private partnership.

The chief minister said that they are fully aware that alongside addressing law and order, parallel efforts to improve business climate was vital despite resource gaps, capacity issues, planning challenges and priorities.