CPEC projects: Murad Ali Shah urges Sindh IG to expedite recruitment of special force

Around 2,000 former army men being recruited to provide security to Chinese nationals

KARACHI: Necessary security arrangements must be made for the Chinese nationals coming to Sindh for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday.

He urged Sindh IG Allah Dino Khawaja to ensure proper security and speed up the appointments of the special force for the purpose. He was presiding over a meeting on the security of Chinese engineers and other staff coming to the province for CPEC projects. The meeting was informed that the Sindh government has started recruiting 2,000 former army men and has already issued Standard Operational Procedures for the security of CPEC and Chinese workers. The CPEC is bound to usher in new vistas of development and prosperity in the country, particularly in Sindh, said Shah.

The CM was informed that the federal government has raised Special Security Division (SSD) consisting nine infantry combat battalions of Pakistan Army with 9,000 personnel and six wings of civil armed force of 4,502 personnel to provide security to Chinese expatriates and the CPEC projects. The Sindh government has to give its input in Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the SSD. Under the ToRs, there will be a dedicated headquarter for each CPEC project.



The meeting was attended by the CM's adviser on law, Murtaza Wahab, chief secretary Siddique Memon, IG Khawaja, advocate-general Zamir Ghumro, prosecutor-general Shahadat Awan, principal secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch and home secretary Riaz Soomro among others.

Hides collectors to have their accounts audited

The Sindh government has decided that all the organisations and groups that collected hides of sacrificial animals will have to get their accounts audited. For this, a procedure will be adopted to verify their income and expenditures.

The decision was taken during a meeting with Shah at the CM House on Thursday to review the implementation of the decisions of the apex committee. There were 20 points of the National Action Plan and 11 of them pertain to the provincial government.

Shah said that those who were issued no-objection certificates to collect hides of sacrificial animals should be asked to get their accounts verified. "I want to see how much funds they generated from the hides and where they spent the amount," he said, adding that this is necessary in order to keep an eye on the utilisation of funds collected in the name of welfare. According to the IG, only six cases of forcible collection of hides (four in Sukkur and two in Karachi) were reported.

"There should be a proper regulation and mechanism for giving and receiving donations," Shah said, adding that there should be a limit to give donations in cash, while huge amounts of donations must be made through cheques. The CM directed his law adviser to submit a proposed draft law for the purpose and issued directions to the law department to prepare a law for the collection of donations.

465 terrorist convicted

The CM was also informed during the meeting that 465 terrorists have been convicted and 19 of them have been executed while the appeals of 379 are pending before the Sindh High Court, one before the Shariat Court and 61 with the Supreme Court. The meeting was also informed that the Sindh government has recommended 105 cases to military courts, while the ministry of interior has cleared 29 of these cases for trial.

Shah was told that necessary legislation for implementation of National Action Plan has been made, which include Sindh Sound System (Regulation) Act 2015 and Sindh Information of Temporary Residents Act, 2015. The CM directed the home department to implement the acts properly while the IG said that 2,115 cases have been registered under the Sound System Act and 1,556 have been arrested so far.

Talking about the Shikarpur attack that was allegedly carried out by terrorists from Balochistan, the CM said that he will speak to the Balochistan government to evolve a joint strategy to stop such movements of terrorists and will also raise the issue with the federal government.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2016.