PPP against any undemocratic interference, says Murad

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is against any kind of interference which is against the constitution and against the principles of democracy.

“We are a democratic party and we believe in democracy, which is evident from the fact that our leadership has sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy,” he said while talking to media just after attending a Senior Management Course (SMC) graduation ceremony on Friday at the National Institute of Management (NIM), Karachi. Murad said that the constitution of Pakistan was federal and democratic and the credit of giving a unanimous constitution to this country went to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a great leader of all times, and “it has become the responsibility each and every one of us to protect it in true letter and spirit”.

To a question, he said that if the judgment pronounced in high treason case had flaws, then there were relevant forums for its redressal. “We must avoid developing controversy on the irrelevant issues because the country was passing through a very critical phase,” he said and added the political parties were capable enough of steering the country out of the present quagmire. He said that he would attend the CCI (Council for Common Interests) meeting the prime minister had called on December 23. “There are various issues between one province with another [province] and that between the provinces and the federation which the federal government has to resolve under the Legislative List Part-II through CCI meetings. He added that the federal government resolves its important issues by holding a weekly cabinet meeting, and similarly it has to convene the CCI meeting within or after every three months to resolve the issues of the provinces with the federation.

Talking about the issues of Sindh he would raise in the CCI meeting, the chief minister said that under Article 158 of the constitution, the people of the province from where natural oil and gas were produced had the first and foremost right to use them. “I have to establish it in the CCI,” he said and added the other issues included recovery of Rs7 billion the federal government had deducted at source in 2016 and that the permission for the installation of a power plant on the CJ Link Canal was illegal and unconstitutional.

from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2ZdEL1M