‘Three major hospitals to come under the Sindh govt’

Taj Haider says they need to tie up some loose ends in the devolution process.

KARACHI: “Since the deadline [for the implementation of the 18th Amendment] is June 30, I want the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) to be under the provincial set-up by July 1,” said former senator Taj Haider, talking to The Express Tribune after a seminar on the role of politicians in interprovincial harmony at a hotel on Tuesday.

According to Haider, there remain some loose ends in the devolution process, especially for educational institutions and hospitals. “The main reason behind the delay is that the expenses in these sectors (health and education) are greater than their income.” He explained that this would require that either the provinces “take out a chunk from their own kitty to fill the gap or the federation keeps footing the bill for a while”. But he insisted this would be done in time for the deadline and the burden would then most likely remain with the federation because the provinces had not made any provisions for extra expenses in the current budget.

Earlier, speaking at the event, Haider said poor people’s problems needed to be resolved in order to strengthen democracy. On those trying to “divide and conquer”, Haider said that the exploiters don’t discriminate among themselves on the basis of caste, colour, creed or race but they wreaked havoc with a common agenda. “It is an old formula to divide and rule but we must not be divided,” he said.

On the role of politicians, he said that once intellect was removed from politics and replaced with emotions, the nation would end up paying the price. “Those who say if they have 10 heads they would say sacrifice them all for the country, my response is, well I have just one head but I have learnt to use it well.”

With clear resentment towards former military ruler Ziaul Haq and his policies, Haider said the Federal Shariat Court did not follow the true principles of Islamic jurisprudence.

“How can a court have the power to create its own laws? They are meant to pass judgement not to create their own system. Further, how can one qazi be in charge of appointing another?”

Also present at the seminar was Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza.

“We have made significant progress in this term and that includes the National Finance Commission through which Sindh will begin to get the Rs120 million it was not being awarded previously. Also, we are scheduled to receive payments for the 12 years that the provinces did not get this money,” she added.

Raza said those who made provinces fight over dams for which no plans or budgets have prepared or sanctioned are not well wishers of the country.

MPA Humera Alwani also spoke on the topic. While it seemed that Alwani had not sufficiently prepared for her speech, she managed to highlight a few agendas that required attention after devolution and for better relations among provinces.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2011.