The decision was made at the Sindh cabinet meeting at CM House on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
The Sindh government has declared 26 police stations in Karachi as ‘highly sensitive’ and decided to pay higher salaries to the policemen deployed there.
The decision was made at the Sindh cabinet meeting at CM House on Saturday. The government also decided to declare the three prisons in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana as sensitive and will deploy more people at these facilities.
The cabinet members were following up on the May 14 high-profile meeting by the prime minister on Karachi law and order. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, advisers and special assistants belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the two parties that form the provincial government.
The cabinet requested the federal government provide Rs27 billion to Sindh to upgrade its police stations, strengthen the force and make the ongoing target operation a success. A separate counter-terrorism department will be set up, latest training will be given to the Rapid Response Force and legislation will be introduced to clean Sindh Police of ‘black sheep’. Sindh IGP was told to provide security to all mosques, imambargahs and places of worship belonging to all minorities, especially in rural Sindh.
The chief secretary, Sajjad Hotiana, informed the officials of their plans to shift the anti-terrorism courts to Malir Cantonment. Five convicted prisoners have been shifted out of the province while 77 have been moved out of Karachi, he said. The process of recruiting 10,000 policemen, 2,000 army personnel and 400 investigations officers is in progress, Hotiana added.
The acting Sindh IG, Ghulam Haider Jamali, told the officials that the operation has reduced target killings by 65%, street crime by six per cent and extortion by nine per cent.
Power policy draft
The cabinet members also deliberated over the first power policy draft tabled by the adviser to the chief minister on energy and finance, Syed Murad Ali Shah. The members will go through the proposed draft and share their recommendations within 15 days. The draft includes proposals to establish the Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company to transmit the power to be generated by the Sindh government in the future. It also proposes setting up the Sindh Power Development Board to regulate the power to be generated by Sindh in future.
The provincial secretary on energy pointed out that the Sindh government was actively launching power projects and hopes to complete them before the current government’s tenure ends. The members encouraged the use of renewable energy sources to resolve the looming power crisis.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah pointed out that the Water and Power Development Authority has issued excessive bills to Sindh and invited the authority to come and justify them. He said Sindh will only pay ‘justified’ bills. Shah said the prime minister and the federal power minister assured him they will resolve the increased load-shedding hours in Sindh but nothing has been done yet. Sindh will raise this issue at the Council of Common Interest meeting as well, he added. The cabinet meeting stressed on the need to start renewable energy projects that can at least feed the streetlights, tubewells, reverse osmosis plants and other important installations.
Other issues
According to the chief minister, the polio virus was as dangerous as any militant group and there is a need for a ‘targeted operation’ against it and other diseases, such as rubella.
Shah was also dissatisfied that the National Aliens Registration Authority (Nara) failed to register illegal immigrants. The government suggested the federal government merge Nara with NADRA.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2014.
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