SUKKUR - Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that the agony Karachites had to go through following rains in the past was not hidden from anyone.

While talking to the media after appearing at the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Sukkur office and later inquiring after ailing PPP leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah here at the NICVD, he said that at least 200 persons were killed in the port city in single a day in 2007 in rain-related incidents. “In yet another downpour in 2009, when the provincial capital received 125 millimeters of rain in a day, fifty persons had lost their lives,” the CM reminded.

He further said that a report compiled later had mentioned that Shara-e-Faisal remained closed for traffic for four days in 2010 due to urban flooding.

He claimed that despite the fact that difficulties were faced in some areas during recent rains, but the Sindh government succeeded in overcoming them.

Murad told newsmen that when Prime Minister Imran Khan had sent NDMA chairman to Karachi in the aftermath of recent rains, he had told him that there were 38 drains in the city, and it was decided that the NDMA would clean three drains only while the Sindh government would clean the rest. “Work on these drains is in progress,” he added.

He made it clear that nobody from any political party, but the representatives of federal and provincial governments would be included in the committee which would work to remove hurdles in the development works.

The chief minister clarified that political administrators could only be posted after the incumbent municipal departments completed their tenure. “However, the decision in this connection would be taken at a meeting scheduled to be held after two days,” he said, and added that only the provincial government was authorised to take decision in this connection.

Sindh CM told the media that few days back, the NAB had sent him a questionnaire concerning supply of wheat on credit in 2017 and 2018. “Therefore, I came to the NAB office today to answer these questions,” he said, and claimed that he had answered all questions, and that, too, in fifteen minutes. Replying to a question put by the media, Murad said that the Sindh government had held talks with the federal government on different matters during the last one month or so.

Murad appears 

before NAB team

Earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team at the bureau’s office in Sukkur in the wheat scandal case.

The chief minister stayed at the NAB’s office for an hour where he gave answers to the questions put by the interrogators.