HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Sindh’s President Haleem Adil Sheikh has expressed hope that the new Mayor of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) will be from his party.
Addressing the party’s public meeting held in Latifabad here late Friday night to mark 23rd founding day of PTI, Sheikh lashed criticized the leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and said
“From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to Nawaz Sharif whoever championed the cause of democracy were actually brought to the power during the dictatorships”, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan is the only leader who assumed power after over 2 decades of political struggle.
The PTI leader expressed hope that Sindh’s next Chief Minister as well as Mayor of HMC would be elected from his party. “We will contest the next election on the symbol of bat without entering in alliance with any party,” he vowed.
He shot back at the criticism of PPP Sindh’s President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and warned him that his non-parliamentary language might draw a similar response.
He blamed the PPP’s provincial ministers for corruption and bad governance saying that more than half of the provincial cabinet was implicated in the cases of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
He claimed that the PPP’s Sindh government received more than Rs1,000 billion during 10 years but a major chunk of it was consumed by the corrupt elements. “I don’t say this but this is stated in the Auditor General’s report,” he added.
Sheikh said during last 10 years the PPP’s government could not even address the problems of clean drinking water and drainage even in the urban areas.
The Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi said PM Khan despised corruption and that he also did not tolerate any corrupt element within the party.
Naqvi asked PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to take lesson from Sharif who used to say that the court would not convict him after his names surfaced in the Panama leaks.
The PTI’s leader asked the people of Sindh to support change of leadership in the province.
The MNA Jai Prakash, MPA Jamal Siddiqui, Khawand Bux Jahejo, Dr Mustansar Billah and other party leaders also spoke on the occasion.
APP