KARACHI:Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah while presiding over a cabinet meeting on Saturday, said that the Supreme Court’s order for removal of encroachment from the city was a guidance for the government; therefore, the anti-encroachment operation would continue, however, human settlements would be protected as much as possible.
The cabinet meeting was attended by almost all provincial ministers, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, chief minister’s advisors and special assistants and relevant secretaries. After the cabinet meeting, CM Advisor on Information Murtaza Wahab and Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani briefed the media about cabinet decisions.
The issue of removal of encroachment from the city was taken up as a special agenda. The chief minister said that the anti-encroachment drive launched under the orders of the Supreme Court was going on properly. “I am concerned about the affectees whose shops have been bulldozed,” he said and added therefore, they must be provided alternate arrangements to carry out their business activities.
Shah said that as far as human settlements were concerned, those should be protected. At this, Chairman P and D Mohammad Waseem told the chief minister that the houses to be demolished for establishment of Karachi Circular Railways had been covered. He added that the number to be affected people would come over 6000 and they would be paid compensation accordingly.
The chief minister constituted a committee under Minister Local Government, Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh and Advisor to CM Murtaza Wahab, and the Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar and Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani would also be co-opted members. The chief minister gave the committee a task to work out a detailed report of the affected shopkeepers and recommend their alternate and compensation so that they could be rehabilitated.
He also issued directives for restoration of Empress Market and its adjoining areas so that the original beauty of the British-era building could be restored. In the project of Empress Market, the compensation and rehabilitation plan would be included. The other item the cabinet took up was Water Commission observations and recommendations regarding SITE Ltd. The cabinet discussed that the SITE Ltd had no authority to convert industrial plots into commercial plots in its area. Therefore, the chief minister directed removal of all the encroachments made by commercial entities causing obstruction in the flow of drains in all estates of SITE Ltd.
The SITE Ltd should take up those task of removal of encroachment on its own, otherwise commissioner Karachi would under, the cabinet approved.
The chief minister also constituted a committee under Chief Minister Advisor of Industries Sardar Mohammad Bux Maher and Minister Local Government Saeed Ghani and Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab as its members. The task of the committee would be to review layout/Master Plans of all the SITE Ltd thoroughly and make necessary recommendations fort their upgradation and get them approved from the concerned board. It was also approved to change composition of the SITE boards in which role of government have been increased.
All the water and sewerage network of all the Trading Estates of SITE would be surveyed thoroughly and a proper Development Action Plan would also be prepared for submission to the government for want of funds. The cabinet also approved that the SITE Ltd would open a separate account with specific purpose to utilize that amount on water, sewerage and solid waste related projects of SITE Ltd. For that purpose the commercial fee collected by SITE ltd would be reviewed thoroughly and it would be enhanced to a reasonable level.
The chief minister said that the committee under Advisor on Industries to scrutinize the cases of conversion of commercialization and submit a report to chief secretary for further action.
The cabinet discussed the proposal of Sindh Minimum Wages Board recommendations it had made in its meeting on August 16, 2018. The board recommended minimum rates of wages for skilled, semi-skilled and highly skilled employees in 41 different categories of industries in the province.
As per recommendation the wage of highly skilled worker would be from Rs21083 to Rs22,569. The salaries of skilled workers would be from Rs18,589 to Rs19,836 and the wage of semi-skilled worker would be from Rs16596 to Rs17,345. The minimum wage of unskilled labour has already been approved at Rs16200. The cabinet approved the proposal.
The chief minister directed chief secretary that the salary structure of similar workers as were employed in factories would be according to the recommendations of the wage board.
The cabinet also approved Sindh Reproductive Healthcare Rights Act-2018. Minister health said that the legislation for reproductive healthcare rights was needed in the province in the scenario where population programmes emphasized the family planning services drives largely by numbers and demographic targets.
The chief minister said that inspire of gradual improvement in some indicators over the past decades, the reproductive health status of population in Pakistan remained much below the desired level when compared with countries of similar socio-economic condition.
He added: “Women reproductive health is not just confined to reproductive year of life (15 to 49 years) but it is related to different stage of life cycle, i.e infancy and childhood, adolescences, adulthood and older age, reflecting different reproductive health needs and behaviour.” The cabinet approved the draft act and directed Law advisor to once again vet the draft.
Another item the cabinet approved was the nomenclature of the katchi abadis Department. The new name of the department would Human Settlement, Spatial Development and Social Housing Department.
The cabinet also approved appointment of Mr Jan Muhammad Lanjar as Presiding officer, Special Court Sindh Public Property (removal of Encroachment), Sukkur. ”