Sindh Assembly: Strong on legislation, weak in execution

Over the decade, Sindh broke records by introducing 192 bills but failed to implement most of them

KARACHI:

The Sindh government might be ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to introducing landmark laws in the province to give a ray of hope to the masses. But when it comes to their implementation, the situation has been dismal, to say the least.

In the past 10 years, the Sindh Assembly has set a precedent for other provinces by introducing the highest number of landmark legislations in various sectors. Sadly, however, the majority of the acts are yet to be implemented.

“Over the decade, the assembly has passed around 192 bills, out of which 90 per cent of the laws have been confined to files because the provincial government has failed to draft their mandatory rules,” an official working in the legislation department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune.

Since coming to power in 2008, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is currently enjoying its third consecutive tenure in the province. During its rule, it introduced a number of landmark laws but some of them also created controversy, which forced the government to either suspend the assembly’s decision or undo the law.

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The law against forced religious conversions and the bill to introduce separate local government systems for urban and rural areas, for instance, raised a lot of objections. As a result, the government was compelled to reconsider its decision.

In 2008, the government also introduced the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Bill to tackle the issue of encroachment in government buildings, plots and other properties. However, the law has remained dormant.

Similarly, in 2011, the Sindh Protection for Human Rights Act was introduced but its implementation could not see the light of day. This happened despite a rise in cases of human rights violations, especially child marriages, extrajudicial killings, missing persons and incidents of forced conversion. The same year, the Sindh Assembly also passed a unanimous law to establish the Sindh Child Protection Authority but the implementation of the law remained a challenge for the government as a result of which it could not set up child protection units in any of the 29 districts of the province.

Likewise, given the rising trend of child marriages, the Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act in 2014 to stop the solemnisation of child marriages. Like other laws, the implementation of this particular act is still a dream. In the absence of concrete laws, influential people still hold “jirgas” in various districts of the province where they give away minor girls in the form of penalty to rival parties in a bid to settle feuds between them.

In the wake of terrorist activities and the acquittal of suspects involved in heinous crime due to a lack of evidence, together with the killing of prime witnesses, the provincial government passed the Sindh Witness Protection Act 2013 to protect witnesses so that they could provide their testimony in criminal proceedings under protection. “If a witness cannot appear in the court due to threats and dire consequences, it [is the] government’s responsibility to arrange a conference call with the judge to record the witness’s statement or produce them before the court of law while concealing their identity,” the law stated.

People from all walks of life lauded the government’s efforts to introduce such a law, but again it could not be implemented. The Sindh Healthcare Commission Act 2013, aimed at improving the quality of healthcare service and banning quackery in the province of Sindh in all its forms and manifestations, was also introduced but the fate of the commission also hangs in the balance as it has failed to achieve its goals and objectives.

“Reports about the Sindh Healthcare Commission being dysfunctional are baseless. It is working and so far around 190 health facilities have been sealed for quackery in Sindh,” Health Minister Dr Azra Pehucho said during the question and answer session in Sindh Assembly a few days ago.

The Sindh HIV and AIDS Control Treatment And Protection Act was introduced in 2013 to control the transmission and spread of HIV in the province and to take measures for the treatment, care and support of people suffering from the disease. Under this law, various programmes were launched but all went in vain as evident from the recent outbreak of HIV/AIDS in Larkana which exposed and countered the government’s claims that everything is going in the right direction.

“The reuse of syringes by quack doctors was the main reason behind the outbreak of HIV in Ratodero,” Haleem Adil Shaikh, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI’s) parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly said. “The Sindh government is not concerned about the implementation of laws. Only those laws are being implemented which are designed to serve the vested interests of the government,” he added. Shaikh also pointed out the amendment made to the Police Act and said that within a week, the Sindh government implemented the law and transferred powers from the inspector general of police Sindh (IGP) to the Sindh chief minister. Similarly, the Sindh New Captive Power Plant Subsidy Act was also quickly passed to give incentives to various power producers.

“On the other hand, the majority of the laws of public importance have been gathering dust and those bills which were passed to serve the vested interest of the government were implemented within the blink of an eye,” he remarked.

The Sindh Home-Based Workers Act, which was formulated in 2018 for the protection of home-based workers, was only introduced superficially as its rules have not been finalised yet.

Nand Kumar Goklani, deputy parliamentary leader of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) in Sindh Assembly, said that the Sindh Hindu Marriage Bill was passed in 2016 for the formal process of registration of Hindu marriages. However, even after two years, the implementation of this law seems to be wishful thinking.

“Last year, I moved an amendment to give rights to Hindu widows and divorcee women to re-marry of their own will,” Goklani said, “The government has finalised the rules but practically, this law is inactive.”

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The Sindh Senior Citizens Welfare Act 2014, the Sindh Maternity Benefits Act 2018, the Sindh Blood Transfusion Act 2017 to regulate the collection, testing, processing, storage, distribution and transfusion of human blood, and the Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act 2016 introduced to prohibit corporal punishment against children, are among other laws to be implemented in the province.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPA Mohammad Hussain has moved a privilege motion against the government for not implementing the laws and said that the provincial government has breached the privilege of the Sindh Assembly by not finalising the rules of many bills.

“We have set a precedent in many cases by adopting historic laws and have also given equal rights to peasant women,” said the minister for parliamentary affairs, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, however. “The Sindh Assembly has also implemented many laws and have finalised the rules of those which had been pending for some time.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2019.