Sindh Assembly: MPAs pass resolution on drug regulatory authority

Biometric system being considered to ensure government officials go to work.


Our Correspondent February 15, 2012

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution authorising parliament to establish a drug regulatory authority and in other business, was informed that the government was thinking of using biometrics to eliminate ghost employees. 

The resolution on the regulatory authority was moved by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Anwar Mahar on Wednesday.

The assembly was also informed that the provincial departments were thinking about implementing the biometric identification electronic card system. This was initially installed at a cost of Rs87.5 million to monitor the attendance of the government employees.

According to Minister of Information Technology Raza Haroon, the chief minister should issue and order to ensure that employees used the system. So far the operation is only underway at the Sindh Secretariat, Governor House and Chief Minister House. Haroon said that this system will help monitor employee movement and ensure discipline. The IT minister said that there were over 10,000 ghost employees in the Sindh government and the biometrics system should help wipe them out.

Responding to a question about CCTV cameras in the city, he said that it was a part of traffic management system. Two hundred CCTV cameras monitored by the police were installed at 40 locations and the footage could only be saved for 30 days. The number will go up to 900. The IT minister also spoke of a Rs941 million e-policing project whose cost would increase because of expenditure on things such as generators and fuel. He added that Rs39 million was being spent on the construction of the IT City project near the Super Highway.

University politics

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi said that teachers were being harassed at Sindh University for protesting against the murder of a professor 40 days ago. She added that the government was not taking the issue seriously. She demanded that an impartial inquiry should be conducted to find out why the police carried out a raid against female teachers. The speaker informed Abbasi that a five member committee had been formed to look into the issue.

Bickering

Wednesday’s session kicked off with Speaker Nisar Khuhro in chair and Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Taimour Talpur from Umerkot standing up to complain about MPA Pir Mazharul Haq for what he said was using abusive language for him at a meeting in Umerkot. Senior members of the party tried to pacify Talpur and asked to not speak out against party members.

The speaker asked Talpur to avoid raising the issue and take it up after the session. The education minister then explained that he was in Umerkot to inaugurate the Allama Iqbal Open University and had not said anything against any party member.

He added that people had tried to turn Talpur against him. He requested the speaker to erase  Talpur’s remarks. Food Minister Nadir Magsi and other party members went to talk to Talpur and Haq but it only seemed to aggravate the situation.

The minister for local bodies, Agha Siraj Durrani, also got up to complain about a party member who he claimed had started a media campaign against him. While referring to the hate campaign launched by PPP member Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, he said that he failed to understand why this was happening. Shah wrote a letter to Khuhro to complain about Durrani’s comments about the Sheedi community in the question and answer session on January 26. In the letter, Shah had asked the minster to apologise. According to Durrani, he was ready to apologise if he was proved wrong. After all the hoopla, Shah apologised and said that he did not inform the media and did not mean to hurt anyone.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

Aristo | 12 years ago | Reply

PPP is in a mess itself, what good can they bring for Sind?

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