KARACHI:The Sindh cabinet in its meeting held on Tuesday approved the draft of Sindh Civil Services (Amendment) Bill-2022 to allocate a 0.5 per cent quota in government jobs in the province for the members of the transgender community. Sindh Information and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, informed this to media persons while addressing a media briefing after the meeting of the provincial cabinet held at Chief Minister House with CM Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair.
The Sindh Information Minister told media persons that the Sindh Civil Services (Amendment) Bill-2022 would soon be passed by the Sindh Assembly for reserving 0.5 per cent quota in government jobs for the members of the transgender fraternity. He said the latest move of the Sindh government would enable the people belonging to the transgender community in the province to lead an honourable life.
He said the transgender community members had already been working with the Sindh government who had secured these jobs through the regular meritorious method of recruitment. Saeed Ghani said the social media had been abuzz with the rumors that the Sindh cabinet was going to discuss the option of granting Pakistani citizenship to the prospective foreign investors. Briefing media persons, the Special Assistant to Sindh CM on Investment, Syed Qasim Naveed Qamar, said the proposal in question was related to an important move of the federal government envisaging the offering of long-term residency vis after the foreign investment was made in accordance with certain global standards. He said that as investment had become a devolved subject after the 18th Constitutional Amendment so the Sindh government would give its suggestions to Islamabad on this issue.
The Sindh Information Minister told media persons that the provincial cabinet had granted approval to the proposal of extending by 90 days the special policing powers of the Sindh Rangers in Karachi under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The previous term of special policing powers of Sindh Rangers ended on 23 December 2021. He said the Sindh cabinet also approved giving a speedy grant of Rs four billion to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases on an immediate basis.
He said the provincial cabinet also okayed the plan to devolve the powers to collect the property tax to the municipal agencies in Sindh as earlier the same was collected by the provincial Excise and Taxation Department. The cabinet also approved the proposal to allow the staffers of the Excise and Taxation Department to work in the municipal agencies to establish the set-up for the collection of property tax.
He said the provincial cabinet also approved a plan to introduce of a bar-code system for the unique identification of every scheme included in the Annual Development Programme of the Sindh government. He said the Sindh cabinet also approved the proposal to establish the Sindh Physiotherapy Council. He said the cabinet also approved amendments to be incorporated in the provincial pension rules to make the system of disbursement of pensions sustainable. He said the reforms in the pension system of the government had become inevitable as otherwise the process was bound to become unbearable for the government to the extent that it could disrupt salary payment to the government employees.
He said the cabinet also approved the proposal to release Rs 350 million for procurement of 152 new motor vehicles for the honourable judges of courts and disbursal of Rs 12 million for procurement of the motorcycles for the department’s staff. The Sindh Information Minister said the provincial cabinet also approved the proposal to purchase 9-mm pistols for Sindh Police. He said the work had been in progress to complete Malir Expressway, Ghotki-Kandhkot Bridge, Maripur Expressway, N-5 to M-9 Link Road in Karachi under the public-private partnership arrangement. He told media persons that the Malir Expressway project would be completed till Quaidabad by the next year.
To a question. Saeed Ghani mentioned that Jamaat-e-Islami had demanded that the Sindh government should withdraw the newly passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act-2021 without having knowledge that the amendment law had made the mayor of Karachi the chairman of the city’s solid waste disposal body while the power of the property tax collection had also been given to the municipal agencies. He said the JI could be justified with its demand to revive the local government ordinance-2001 if such a call was for the entire country. He said the JI had been asked by the Sindh government to give its suggestions to improve the provincial local government law as the same would be adopted, which were deemed practicable as the legislation was done on the basis of majority in the assembly.