Murad claims around Rs70bn to be spent on Karachi's uplift in upcoming fiscal year.

Byline: Tahir Siddiqui

KARACHI -- Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday said that up to Rs70 billion would be spent on the uplift of Karachi in the next fiscal year 2020-21.

Concluding the debate on the provincial budget in the Sindh Assembly, he said that Karachi was his city and an integral part of the province.

The chief minister said that while a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf member stated that only Rs1.94bn was allocated for Karachi in the annual development programme, 'Rs60 to 70 billion was earmarked for the city's different projects in the budget for the fiscal year 2020-21'.

He was of the view that the provincial government's main source of income was sales tax on services, the major chunk of which was received from Karachi.

'It is understood that more taxes are collected from the place where there is major consumption,' he added.

Opposition leader Naqvi says education, health standards of Sindh declined during past 12 years; budget debate concludes

As for the delay in the K-IV project - a joint megaproject of the provincial and federal governments meant to augment Karachi's daily water supply - he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to Karachi after holding the premier's office had asked to stop the work. 'The prime minister wanted an inquiry and maintained that initially, the project's estimated cost was Rs25bn but it now exceeded Rs100bn, therefore a probe should be held,' he said.

He said that the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) was given the megaproject's contract and asked the centre for strict action if someone was involved in any malpractice.

The CM said that a 'robbery' of billion of rupees was made by the sugar mill owners who got subsidy during October 2018 to January 2020.

He said that the PTI's blue-eyed persons were getting caught; that's why they expanded the probe for the last five years as the sugar inquiry commission was initially tasked to probe into subsidy given to sugar mills owners for just the last two years.

'The Sindh government didn't give subsidy to any of the sugar mills during 2018-19,' he added.

Mr Shah said that 48 lawmakers of different assemblies were facing corruption charges and booked by the National Accountability Bureau.

'On the one hand, Sindh Assembly members of PPP Agha Siraj Durrani, Faryal Talpur, Jam Khan Shoro, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Qaim Ali Shah, Awais Qadir Shah, Abdur Rauf Khoso, Taimur Talpur, Raja Razzaque, Ismail Rahu and MQM-P's Javed Hanif were following...