PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. PHOTO: AFP
“The PPP government [in Sindh] must deliver more than any other provincial government,” he said while presiding over a meeting of the cabinet at Bilawal House on Saturday. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Wassan, Mukesh Chawala and other ministers and special assistants to the chief minister attended the meeting.
Next PM from PPP, predicts Zardari
Briefing the meeting, the chief minister said the Sindh government had released Rs161 billion over the past three quarters of the current fiscal year and Rs86 billion had already been spent. During the same period last year, Rs101 were released and Rs51 billion were spent.
The Sindh education minister said that the provincial government had reopened 2,079 of the 5,000 closed primary schools and 1,400 others were found to be unviable. He said that third party evaluation of reopened schools was being carried out to ensure their fully functional status, adding that teachers’ training was being outsourced to improve primary education.
Commenting on garbage disposal in Karachi, the minister concerned pointed out that there were bottlenecks and the Sindh government was taking steps to remove them.
Lahore, Sahiwal divisions: Bilawal approves PPP office-bearers
The minister for local government said that a mega project for providing 200 million gallons per day of water was being initiated.
Construction of 2,003 kilometres of roads had been completed in the province, said the minister for works and services. According to him, as many as 41 major road schemes were also under progress.
About the Gorakh Hill resort in Dadu district, Bilawal was told that talks were being held with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to build a broader road for providing easier access to tourists. Installation of an integrated security surveillance system was under way in hundreds of places of worship of non-Muslims, said the provincial information technology minister.
PPP continues to stage walkout from NA
The meeting was also informed that steps had been taken to ensure export of Sindhri mangoes. Previously, it was illegal to export these mangoes abroad.
Bilawal was also informed that Sindh government had increased women’s job quota from five to 15 per cent.
In the transport sector, the meeting was told that the Sindh Mass Transir Project had formally been approved and bus services such as Edhi Lines, Yellow Lines, Blue Lines and Red Lines would be launched by the end of this year in a phased manner.
Under ‘Peoples Service’, 617 new buses under Public-Private Partnership were ready to run in the provincial capital by July this year.
Apprising about performance of Health Department, the minister concerned said that liver transplants were being carried out in Sindh, adding that 12 vertical health programmes were also being run. He pointed out that the Sindh government had tried to induct 6,000 doctors but could not do so because of litigations.
The cabinet meeting was told that minority affairs department had undertaken 550 schemes for non-Muslim communities and their places of worship.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ