KARACHI: The Central Vice President Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, while addressing a press conference here at Sindh Assembly building, said that Imran Khan secured the largest chunk of votes polled during first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as different candidates contesting elections as independent were actually belonged to PTI and they used pictures of Imran Khan to attract voters.

The real contest in KPK local government elections was PTI versus PTI as 5 candidates who returned successful as independent had political affiliation with PTI while many other leading vote gainers were also from PTI, he said adding that various local factors affect the LG polls as well.

Admitting to some shortcomings at local leadership level and in distribution of tickets in KPK Haleem Adil said that different factors ranging from national to local level affected the overall results in KPK which also include growing inflation in the global post Covid-19 scenario.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has declared that he personally would monitor the upcoming phase of LG polls in KPK, Haleem Adil Sheikh said and hoped that PTI in leadership of Imran Khan would be able to repeat the same performance that was demonstrated in elections of Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

Haleem said that PTI has emerged as the only national political party of Pakistan which has deep roots, popularity and vote bank in every federating unit while other parties had been shrunk to certain areas. PPP had lost its vote bank in Punjab and KPK, PML-N and JUI-F had been constrained to Punjab and KPK respectively, he said adding that it was PTI that was confronting all the political competitors in every province and region of the country because Imran Khan’s political strategy and approach is people centric and aimed at conquering the hearts of public.

Referring to building collapse in Shershah locality of SITE area of Karachi, Haleem Adil hold Sindh government, KMC and provincial environment protection agency SEPA responsible of the sad incident in which 17 citizens lost their lives. PTI MNA Alamgir Khan who has been striving to protect the metropolis from negative implications of poor sewerage system of Karachi lost his father in an incident that took place due to poor management of sewerage system, he said.

Federal government had taken responsibility of Mehmoodabad, Orangi and Gujjar Nullahs and progress on those were satisfactory while on the other hand provincial government had to clear 41 drainage nullahs of KMC and around 500 drains of district municipal corporations which they miserably failed to do, Haleem observed.

They not only failed to clear the drainage channels but also failed in stopping disposal of untreated hazardous industrial waste into sewerage drains that was being termed as main reason of gutter blast in Shershah, he said adding that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) should be formed to probe into the incident and for addressing the concerns of affected families.

Haleem Adil said that poor people who were living on encroached state lands and over and along sewerage and storm drains must be compensated and provided with alternate piece of land for their relocation while buildings and parking areas build on state lands and nullahs by government departments and private entities should be removed at the earliest to avert occurrence of such sad incidents in future.

Whenever PPP’s corrupt systems working under Ali Hassan Brohi and other land grabbers required land they acquire it by rendering the residents of the area homeless and carrying out ruthless anti-encroachment operations, Haleem noted adding that but Sindh government could not provide alternate land to poor people.

He said that PPP Sindh government wanted to regularize all the illegal constructions in the name of Nasla tower and they promulgated an ordinance in the regard as well but PTI opposed the move. He reiterated the demand of setting up a judicial commission with a senior judge of high court in chair to look into the issue of vast scale land grabbing in Sindh as there were over 3.9 million acres of state land under illegal occupation throughout the province.

He said that a large number of poor people were on roads and staged a sit in against forceful occupation of their lands in Nawabshah by Ali Hassan Zardari. If affected people were not provided justice PTI would join their protest, he added.

Haleem Adil Sheikh also expressed concerns on coercive steps of Sindh government for intimidating PAS and PSP officers who were transferred under rotation policy and relinquished their charge as per directives of establishment division.

He said that certain officers who were part of PPP government’s corruption were not relinquishing the charge in defiance to establishment divisions’ orders while Sindh government warned charge relinquishing officers of unfavourable ACR and other actions, he said adding that such officers should be protected from black mailing of Sindh government.

Haleem Adil replying to a query on government’s offer of negotiations on local government law said that SLGA-2013 was in clear contravention to constitution as the act deprived local governments from their statuary roles and responsibilities.

PTI will accept only an act that ensures devolution of power and functions to third tier of government as per constitutional provisions, the opposition leader categorically stated adding that they would continue resisting the ‘Zardari and Bajari’ system.

PTI MPA Shabeer Qureshi while speaking at the occasion said that PTI along with local population protested against encroachments on nullahs and demanded the administration to vacate the land as various incidents of blasts due to accumulation of gases in closed gutters had occurred in the area but no action was taken.

He said that 220 factories in SITE area were illegally allotted nullah land and all the drains carrying hazardous sewerage were covered which might cause more serious incident and irreparable losses in future. He appealed Chief Justice Sindh High Court to take notice of the alarming situation and take immediate measures for removal of illegal encroachments from SITE area for safety and security of general public who were constantly under threat.