KARACHI     -      Sindh Minister for Information & Archives and Labour Saeed Ghani has said that whenever Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Karachi, it was expected that he would discuss the issues of Karachi, but if he himself did not want to meet Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, then the Sindh government could not be blamed for that.

He said this while addressing Meet the Press at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.

The information minister said that it was not true that the Chief Minister Sindh did not receive the Prime Minister at the airport. He said that first the Prime Minister seldom bother to visit Karachi  and secondly whenever he had to come to Karachi the provincial government was informed about his schedule but this time it had not been done. He said that even if the Sindh government whenever sent a letter to the Prime Minister, the same was never responded on a priority basis.

Ghani said that Pakistan People’s Party had always faced stiff competition on the PS-11, while in this election, the votes of the PPP had increased as compare to the last three to four years. He said that it was always tried vigorously that People’s Party did not win any election.

The provincial minister for information said that the candidates of the Grand Democratic Alliance always faced humiliation in every election. Power vaccinations were always needed to keep the Grand Democratic Alliance alive, he added.

Ghani said that if Pakistan People’s Party also started to inject power vaccinations to the members of the Grand Democratic Alliance, these habitual men would never leave the party.

Responding to a question, Ghani said that Sindh government would remain intact, but Imran Khan must worry about whether his government would remain in place till next January or not.  On the health of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his re-hospitalization, the provincial minister of information expressed serious concerns and said that the thinking of Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government was leading the country to dangerous situation.

Responding to another question, the provincial minister said that the local elections  would be conducted on time. He said that the Local Government Act 2013 existed which could be amended as well.

Meanwhile, Saeed Ghani  visited Karachi Press Club and met press club office bearers. Karachi Press Club office bearers discussed in detail the issues pertaining to the grant of journalists, the lease of the plots owned by the journalists, the land allocated to the journalists by Lyari Development Authority and other relevant problems being faced by the community.

Addressing the meeting, Ghani said that this was his first visit to Karachi Press Club after assuming the charge of the information ministry and he was happy to be here. He said that as far as the problems being faced by journalists were concerned, including the leasing of plots and other issues especially the grant to be given to the press clubs, the Sindh government was working on sincerely to solve these problems and without any undue delay all these problems would be solved.

He said that at present, all segments of the country, including the media, were suffering due to the poor economic conditions of the country. Saeed Ghani said that the media had been facing serious financial crises for the last one year. Provincial minister asked the owners of media companies to take good care of their employees.

He said that the failure and the incompetency of the federal government had created serious problems for the middle class and the poor. Saeed Ghani said that bans were imposed deliberately on media so that the journalists could not expose the failures of PTI government.

Provincial Minister for Information said, “I strongly condemn the unannounced bans on media as well as the financial crises they were facing owing to the failed policies of the federal government.”