DADU: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah believes no political party will be able to secure enough seats to form government singlehandedly in the Centre, paving the way for a coalition government.

Mr Shah told journalists at a PPP leader’s guesthouse in Jhangara town on Sunday that it was his personal opinion that all parties would have to be part of one or the other alliance in the Centre in the wake of general election.

He said that he was confident that once again a Jiala would be chairman of Senate. No political party had any right to propose a candidate who belonged to the other party, he said, referring to PML-N’s proposal for allowing Raza Rabbani to continue as the Senate chief.

He hoped all parties would support the big party of the country in election for the head of upper house and put their trust in the majority party’s choice of the candidate.

He said that 2018 was an election year and like every political party preparing for general election PPP too was readying for polls.

About Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, he said that PTI chief had faced humiliating defeats everywhere in the country.

PTI had no supporter base in Sindh and no vote bank but conversely PPP was gathering strength in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said.

He said that Sindh government would support the opinion on delimitations of constituencies which would be in the best interest of public.

Mr Shah said that he had informed the Indus River System Authority in advance that Sindh would face shortage of water and urged the authority to store water in dams but it did not pay heed to his advice.

He said that Sindh government had made a viable plan for ending water shortage in the province. After the plan was put into practice, it would eliminate the problem forever and there would be no complaint of water scarcity in future, he said.

About Supreme Court-appointed water commission, he said the Sindh government was following all directives issued by the commission and he was personally monitoring implementation of its directives so that all problems related with water were resolved.

He said in answer to a question about non-functional reverse osmosis plants at Manchhar Lake and that all plants would be made functional soon.

Earlier, the chief minister offered condolence to local PPP leader Abdul Sattar Baloch on the death of his mother and visited Pipri village to condole death of a relative of PPP leader Syed Zaffar Ali Shah.

Mr Shah was accompanied during the visit by Hyderabad commissioner Saeed Ahmed Magnejo, DIG Javed Alam Odho, Jamshoro deputy commissioner Fareeduddin Mustafa, SSP Irfan Bahadaur, PPP leader Sikandar Rahpoto, PPP district president Syed Asif Ali Shah and PPP taluka president Raees Amanaullah Shahani.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2018