Karachi - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the devolution of powers by former president Pervez Musharraf has played havoc with the established system of governance.
He was addressing a reception he hosted for industrialists here at the CM House on Saturday evening.
He said that some of the people were still singing praises of the devolution system, but they forgot what the system had done to Karachi and other cities.
Murad said that the city governments had revenue powers.
"They allowed conversion of amenity plots into residential and commercial," he said, and added that encroachments had appeared everywhere and even major drain of the city was not safe from it.
He regretted that an established and functional government system was changed, instead of reforming it. "Still we are working to recover from the damages the devolution of powers has caused," he said.
Talking about investment opportunities in Sindh, he said that he was introducing one-window system to facilitate the investors. "I believe the industrialists are partners of the government. This is why we have developed Public Private Partnership (PPP) concept and it is working successfully," the CM said, and added, "We have to work hard to improve education and health services in the province."
He further said, "Our government is working on canal lining so that water losses can be reduced to bring more land under cultivation."
Talking about some talk shows, which, according to him, continuously criticised him for delaying the completion of ongoing development works, the chief minister said, "But, believe me I get energy from their criticism and accelerate my efforts to make this city more developed and peaceful."
He claimed that he was going to utilise Rs12 billion on different development schemes in the city and would complete them within six months.
He also criticised NAB for harassing government officers so that they could not perform. "But, I have developed confidence in them with my close coordination and support, and their performance is improving now," he said.
"Some of our institutions, believing themselves to be honest, consider others corrupt," he said, and urged them to stop this kind of self conceit at least in the interests of development of the province and the country.
Murad said that he was working hard to start the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR). “An important CPEC joint working group is meeting with Sindh government here, and we will start work on it on the birthday of Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam on December 25,” he informed.
On the occasion, Minister for Industries Manzoor Wassan also spoke. The reception was attended by around 100 industrialists.