Cabinet allocates Rs4.5b for repatriation of illegal aliens

Necessary police support to district administration for the operation ordered

KARACHI:

The caretaker cabinet of Sindh has decided to allocate Rs4.5 billion for the repatriation of illegal aliens.

The cabinet took these and other important decisions during a meeting presided over by Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar on Tuesday which was attended by his cabinet ministers and top provincial bureaucrats.

The home secretary said that the Federal Ministry of Interior has shared the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP) outlining necessary actions to be taken by all the provinces for repatriation of illegal immigrants.

The cabinet was told that an amount of Rs4.5 billion was required to carry out the repatriation of illegal foreigners from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, and Larkana divisions. The cabinet approved the funds outside the budget allocations. The CM directed the home minister to provide necessary police support to the district administration for the repatriation of illegal foreigners.

Also read: Illegal aliens to be housed in camps till expulsion

The cabinet decided that the flour mills found defaulters in any kind of misappropriation of government wheat/irregularity in payment of government dues such as cost of wheat, and markup, shall be released wheat upon payment of dues. The cabinet decided to release the wheat at Rs10,500 per 100/kg bag from November 10 and fix the support price of wheat for crops 2023-24 at a rate of Rs4,000 per maund.

The CM decided to allocate Rs25 billion out of the earmarked savings of Rs34.19 billion in 2023-24 under the subsidies head, for retiring unsecured liabilities in 2023-24 and ordered immediate release of Rs5 billion for payment to banks. The Finance Department would release Rs2 billion every month till June, 30, 2024.

The cabinet approved the appointment of Prof Tahir Saghir as the new executive director of the NICVD. The other approvals granted by the cabinet included setting the minimum wage of workers at Rs32,000 per month; amendment to the Sindh Prohibition of Non-degradable Plastic Products (manufacturing, sale, and usage) Rules 2014; transfer of Rs5.1 billion to the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Government of Pakistan for Centralised Procurement of Vaccines and Logistics for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) during 2023-24; nomination of Caretaker Revenue Minister Younis Dhaga, Caretaker Minister Law Omer Soomro and Chartered Accountant Shabbar Zaidi on the Thar Coal & Energy Board.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2023.