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Miftah Ismail. PHOTO: PID
KARACHI:
Former Federal Finance Minister and Awaam Pakistan Party (AP) leader Miftah Ismail has slammed the PPP Sindh government for its alleged failure to protect lives and properties of citizens.
Miftah said the PPP has been in power in Sindh for 18 years, but it could not control the fire that gutted a huge commercial establishment – Gul Plaza – in the heart of Sindh’s capital.
“If it is [the PPP government] I can’t even control the fires in Karachi [Sindh’s most developed city]one can imagine the situation inside Sindh,” the politician said at a press conference held under the auspices of an alliance of opposition parties, TTAP.
Expressing sadness over the tragic incident in which six people died and dozens went missing, he said the tragic fire at Gul Plaza was deeply regrettable. Miftah Ismail said that if a government does not have a real mandate, it cannot bring about change.
He urged authorities to be concerned about the plight of the public, warning that hunger and poverty are spreading and the poor are getting poorer. Miftah said the government had published two surveys – on employment and on households – in recent weeks which revealed an increase in poverty.
He said the poor have become 18% poorer, the average Pakistani has become 12% poorer and incomes have remained at 2010 levels until now, while real incomes have been declining since 2021. The politician who served as the country’s finance minister under PML-N rule in 2022 before becoming unhappy with the party said that in 2018, 16% of households worried about having enough food, whereas today this figure has increased to 25%.
This means that a quarter of the population does not know where their next meal will come from.
Miftan said that in 2018, all Pakistanis consumed more food than today, adding that a person who could eat four eggs in 2018 could not even afford to buy one today.
