PPP urges ECP to ‘unfreeze’ funds for development schemes

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to unfreeze the funds for development schemes in Sindh.

PPP senior leader and in-charge Central Election Cell Senator Taj Haider wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC) and demanded to take back its decision to ban the disbursement of funds for development schemes ahead of elections.

The political party said the funds include those allocated in the provincial budget for providing flood-resistant houses to families devastated by last year’s floods and for solar panels to provide relief to the families from hours of load-shedding and exorbitant electricity bills.

Senator Taj Haider said he had hoped the caretaker set-up would not block or alter the development schemes under the Election Act amendment. However, he said the ECP has made the surprising decision to take this “illegal, unconstitutional and anti-people step.”

He added that the provincial government constructed 50,000 out of 2 million houses for flood-affected families in the past three months but the owners were not being allowed to enter their houses.

“The tragedy of our social system is that those who construct houses are not allowed even to enter the houses they have built once a house is completed,” he added.

Senator Taj Haider complained about facing challenges in the shape of mass protests against the inflated electricity bills and the closure of business centres due to the wrong policies.

He said under a development scheme, the Sindh government planned to install solar panels in 2.1 million houses belonging to the flood victims but the authorities were unable to continue the project due to the freezing of funds.

“Shall we reverse this direction and push our people back into centuries-old darkness? The most marginalized of our people, living in the remotest and most backward areas of our country deserve electricity as a fundamental right,” he said.

Senator Haider urged the election commission to take back its decision on humanitarian grounds and unfreeze all development funds for ongoing schemes.