Sindh asks Centre to withdraw gas levy

PPP lawmakers demand the federal govt issue diplomatic passport to legislators

KARACHI: The Sindh government has demanded the federal government withdraw the gas levy in the form of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess on consumers.

They passed a resolution making this demand during a Sindh Assembly session on Monday. The levy undermines provincial autonomy, claimed Pakistan Peoples Party's Khairunisa Mughal. "It will affect Sindh's economy," she said. Demanding the federal government withdraw the five per cent surcharges immediately, Mughal said the charges were a fraud.

The lawmakers also passed the Sindh Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2015. Education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro explained that there was a section missing from the previous draft and was pointed out by the judicial academy of the Sindh High Court. The missing section has now been incorporated in the new bill, he said.

Khuhro also spoke about the issue of registration of private schools in Sukkur and insisted that there was no mismanagement. There are over 1,200 registered private schools, he said.

He was responding to Pakistan Muslim League-Functional's Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, who had referred to a news article in Sindhi press claiming that 100 private schools in Sukkur were not following legal formalities. "We'll take action if someone can point out mismanagement," Khuhro promised.

Health workers

During the session, health minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar said his ministry was taking measures to regularise all the employees hired on contracts.

Around 300 contract workers in the hepatitis control programme have been regularised. The minister said that 434 employees of the Benazir Youth Development Programme have also been made permanent.

Criminals with CM?

PML-F lawmaker Rashid Shah brought photos of some criminals from Mirpurkhas sitting with Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. He listed names of men, such as Anwer Kanhr, Imdad Panhio, Ibrahim Bhutto and Azam Shah, who were involved in kidnappings and murders, according to him. "They have recently joined the PPP but are criminals," he claimed.

Soon after he made this statement, the PPP lawmakers stood up to defend Shah. This was followed by an argument between members of the two parties. "These people were pious when they were part of PML-F but are being called criminals now that they have joined the PPP," said Manzoor Wasan.

Diplomatic passports

Meanwhile, PPP lawmaker Dr Sikandar Shoro presented another resolution demanding the federal government issues diplomatic and official passports to lawmakers and officers of the secretariat. The issuance of diplomatic passports was discussed during the 17th Speakers Conference held in Islamabad in April, 2014, the resolution stated. It recommends the Sindh government approach the federal government to grant diplomatic passports to the assembly speaker, deputy speaker and official passport to the members of the assembly and officers of the secretariat of the provincial assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2015.