SHIKARPUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Monday that the appointment of the inspector general of police was an administrative matter and it was made in accordance with the rules, but his government respected the Sindh High Court ruling suspending the notiñcation on replacing the inspector general of police. Through the notiñcation, the Sindh government had removed inspector general of police A.D. Khowaja and appointed Abdul Majeed Dasti as acting IGP.

Answering questions from media persons here, the chief minister added that the PakistanPeoplesPartyheldthejudiciaryin high esteem and accepted its every decision.

He said he believed that the issue of appointment of the IGP would be resolved soon `according to the rules`. He said the other officer, Mr Dasti, was also a Grade-21 PSP official as was A.D. Khowaja.

He said the 18th constitutional amendment had devolved sufficient powers to the provinces but those persons who wereagainst provincial autonomy continued to raise such issues.

Bagh Ibne Qasim Replying to a question about Bagh Ibne Qasim`s handing over to a real-estate tycoon, the chief minister said the Sindh Assembly had passed a law about parks and keeping it in view, Bagh Ibne Qasim was handed over to Bahria Town to help improve and renovate the park. However, due to `uncalled-for differences`, the Bahria Town management backtracked and the restoration worl( of the park was suspended.

Referring to Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar`s objection to the park handover, he said there were many more parks in Karachi where the mayor could carry out improvement.

`Good governance` In reply to a question, the chief minister said that an opinion had been formed against the Sindh government regarding good governance which, unfortunately, could not be dispelled. However, he said, there was `good governance` in Sindh andthe PPP won the 2013 elections on the basis of it. He said that was why `celebrities` in others parties were joining the PPP. In that connection, he said senior PTI and PML-N leaders had come into the PPP fold.

Earlier, talking to PPP workers and the media after attending the reception given by former MPA Mir Babul Khan Bhayyo, he said that on April 4 the death anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would be observed with due enthusiasm and spirit in which more followers of Bhutto than before would tal(e part. He said he himself was supervising the arrangements of the meeting, traffic arrangement in particular, to help the people coming to pay homage to their leader.

He said the PPP was the `party of martyrs and the oppressed` and the people of Sindh had been rendering sacrifices for the stability of the PPP. He claimed that the general elections expected to be held next year would be won by the PPP with the support of the people of Sindh, who trusted the leadership of the party.

He said Sindh was not the property of any political party but it was the motherland of the Sindhi people who, therefore, had theright to govern it. However, he said, every political party had a democratic right to hold public meetings to attract voters in Sindh as in the other provinces. `But in spite of that no other political party could be successful in the elections and will be defeated by people of the province,` he added.

Mr Shah criticised the federal government for failing to store enough water in the dams and deplored that Sindh was facing the `worst water crisis`. He asked the opposition to avoid playing negative politics of agitation and stop `misguiding` the people in the larger interests of the welfare of the masses.

About the population census, the chief minister said his government had reservations over the process and the matter had been challenged in court. The chief minister asked the party leaders and workers of Shikarpur district to participate in the Garhi Khuda Bakhsh public meeting in large numbers.

Later, Chief Minister Shah accompanied by Agha Siraj Khan Durrani, the speaker of the Sindh Assembly, ministers and officials attended the reception given in his honour by PPP MPA Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh.