Meeting on the Karachi’s transformation package was held on January 16
TLTP
KARACHI
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi and Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah have penned letters to the Prime Minister after a verbal clash in Karachi Transformation Plan meeting a week earlier.
The information of the incident surfaced on Saturday after the letter written by the chief minister came to the forefront.
“That on 16.01.2021, another meeting of the Committee took place at the Chief Minister House, Karachi. However, towards the end of the meeting, Mr Zaidi acted in a hostile and belligerent manner in the presence of the Committee towards the undersigned [CM Murad]…,” said the letter.
The letter further stated that “Mr Zaidi’s unruly behaviour, which under no stretch of imagination can be deemed as one expected from a Federal Minister, was ignored”.
The province’s top executive further complained to the Prime Minister that this “is clearly not the first time Mr Zaidi had shown such arrogance and belligerence at public forums which is unbecoming of any citizen let alone a federal minister”.
Registering his protest against Zaidi’s behaviour through the letter, Murad expressed hope that the Prime Minister’s Office “will take some action, and in future, maturity (to some extent), inter alia, will be seen as merit for appointments at such positions”.
On the other hand, Ali Zaidi in a series of tweets on Saturday presented his side of the story. He said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan after a verbal clash with Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah during the Karachi Transformation Plan meeting on January 16.
The development comes after CM Sindh wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, complaining about the behaviour of Ali Zaidi in the meeting.
The federal minister said that Murad Ali Shah had the audacity to write to the PM and his letter shows nothing but arrogance and conceit. “He does not even have the etiquette and manners on how to address the office of the Prime Minister,” he said.
Ali Zaidi complained in his letter that six months have been passed since the formation of the Karachi Transformation Plan committee, but CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah is not answerable to anyone.
He said that during a meeting on January 16, he requested the CM Sindh to include the devolution of organisations like SBCA and SWWMB to divisional levels as committed by him months ago. “The CM Sindh replied by saying that I’m not answerable to you three times.
So if Shah feels he’s not even answerable to elected members of the National Assembly from his province then there was no further need for me to waste my time sitting in that meeting and I walked out”, Ali Zaidi said.
Ali Zaidi further said that a high-powered committee of Federal and provincial ministers, CM, Chairman NDMA, heads of various law enforcement agencies held multiple meetings just to discuss how to clean garbage from storm drains and remove encroachments all because of a corrupt provincial government that has looted for decades.
On the other hand, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has expressed concerns on making the letter of Chief Minister of Sindh Murad Ali Shah to Prime Minister Imran Khan available to the media.
Saeed Ghani, while talking to media persons on Saturday, said that the Sindh government has always acted responsibly and no statement was made by the provincial government on the verbal clash between two officials.
Saeed Ghani, while asking for removal of Ali Zaidi from cabinet as well as Karachi Transformation Plan committee, said that everyone knows about political non-seriousness of Ali Zaidi. TLTP
