KARACHI: Government doctors should serve their districts for at least five years, while those who violate this rule should be suspended from service, it was decided at the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday.
Doctors, who are employed by the government, do not take their jobs seriously at district government hospitals and instead get transferred to other hospitals, MPA Sharjil Memon of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said at the SA session while proposing a resolution, demanding that these doctors be bound to serve in their districts for at least five years so that the people of these districts do not have to travel to cities for treatment.
Provincial ministers Shazia Marri, Faisal Sabzwari, Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, Dr Sikandar Shoro, Humera Alwani and Nusrat Seher Abbasi spoke in favour of the resolution. They were of the belief that the objectives of the resolution were correct and that the government doctors should serve in inaccessible areas. They added, however, that doctors must also be allowed to transfer to hospitals in the cities for post-graduate studies and training and that they be given incentives to work in districts.
When PPPs Mujaddad Isran asked the ministers to recommend names of doctors who should be transferred or promoted, Speaker Nisar Khuhro said that the ministers should make no such recommendations.
The SA passed the resolution and Khuhro directed the standing committee on health to submit a report within one month.
Water Supply
Members of the SA were in discord regarding the supply of water in Sindh. People in Sindh are suffering due to a shortage of water while the Tarbela Dam is being replenished, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, a member of the opposition, said while tabling an adjournment motion. Irrigation minister Syed Murad Ali, however, denied Abbasi’s allegations, stating that the Tarbela Dam was not monopolising water and that the shortage of water in Sindh was due to a shortage of water in the rivers. Abbasi withdrew her motion after the irrigation minister submitted facts refuting Abbasi’s argument.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah submitted a report on the Water Supply Scheme that was approved by the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) in 2008.
Baba, Bhit and Shams Pir islands, as well as Salehabad in Manora will be provided with water under the existing scheme, Shah replied to a question posed by Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto, adding that the project will cost Rs386.108 million. He then submitted a detailed break-up of the project’s funding, adding that the scheme was not included in the Annual Development Programme 2009-2010 and has been funded solely by the Sindh government till June 2009.
Education
Teachers will no longer be transferred to other posts on the basis of Own Pay Scales (OPS) or deputations, said education minister Pir Mazharul Haq. The Sindh cabinet has directed the district governments to strictly implement this rule, he informed Abbasi, who had earlier stated that there were officials who were still working on OPS in the education department.
Grade 16 and 18 officials are working as Executive District Officers (EDO) in Tando Muhammad Khan, alleged Abbasi, adding that the EDOs can only be Grade 18 officers.
The education system is in complete ruins after the induction of the former district and city government system said Haq, who maintained that the current district governments can no longer offer positions to teachers based on OPS.
Local bodies minister Agha Siraj Durrani reiterated that he had issued warnings to district administrators not to transfer people on OPS.
Meanwhile, law minister Ayaz Soomro informed the session that the interviews of lecturers for the Karachi University mass communication department will be held on June 27.
Space in jails for religious rites of minorities
SA members unanimously approved a resolution, tabled by PPP’s Saleem Khurshid Khokhar and Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Heer Ismail Soho, for allocating spaces to minorities in jails for their religious rites. Jails minister Haji Muzaffar Shajra said that the minorities were already provided with space at the Karachi central jail and the Landhi jail for their religious activities.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2010.
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