Govt passes bill to fight land grabbers
According to the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Bill, 2010, if anyone refuses to or fails to vacate public property or remove an illegal structure even after notice is served, the anti-encroachment force shall evict them. The force can lodge an FIR, inquire into, investigate and prosecute all offenders relating to the encroachment, unauthorised occupation of public property etc. The officers, who are from the rank from director general to constable, can exercise all powers of the provincial police officer under Police Order 2002. The force can arrest without warrant as well.
Sindh law minister Ayaz Soomro tabled the bill that was appreciated by all members. A special tribunal will be set up in the districts. Shah said that after occupying government land, many people had filed suits in the courts and it would take years to announce their fate. “The bill does not apply to individuals, but for those who are land grabbers,” he said.
PPP MPA Munawar Abbasi said that land near the Rice Canal owned by the irrigation department had been occupied. “We cannot rule out the involvement of government officials,” he pointed out.
Question Answer
As the session started at around noon with Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair, the oath-taking ceremony of MPA Rashid Khan nominated by the MQM following the resignation of Asif Peter, took place. During the session, the Speaker suspended the rules of business and started the question-answer session from the minister for Zakat, Ushr and Auqaf.
Arif Mustafa Jatoi complained that for the last one year the minister for Zakat and Ushr, Muhammad Sajjid Jokhio, had not been giving proper answers to his question on irregularities detected in the district zakat committees from July 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009.
“I have sent him around 13 reminders, but he did not give me answers,” Jatoi said, adding that the minister had to answer on the floor of the House but avoided it. The minister said that he would try to give the answers in the current session. When the Speaker asked why the minister had failed to do so even after 13 reminders, the minister replied that he had asked his secretary to work on it.
To a question from Jatoi on the procedure of Zakat distribution, Jokhio said that district committees were tasked with giving Zakat to deserving people with the help of local zakat committees. The money is released by the Central Zakat Committee, 2.5 billion rupees were generated from Sindh, but 800 million rupees were given back to it and the money was distributed on the basis of population.”
To another question on why the government is not freezing Zakat in order to help flood victims, he replied that around Rs1.35 billion have already been disbursed for flood victims by the central zakat council.
Opposition walkout
As the question-answer session ended, the Speaker asked the law minister to move a motion on a discussion on the floods. But the leader of the Opposition, Jam Madad Ali, said that they had tabled a resolution first.
“Why are you people in a rush to get numbers?” retorted Madad Ali. However, the law minister and Speaker told him to defer the legislation till Tuesday which is private member’s day. This upset the Opposition that walked out.
Before moving the motion on floods, the law minister tried to introduce the Sindh local government (fifth amendment) bill 2010. But due to stiff resistance from Arif Mustafa Jatoi, the Speaker deferred the bill. Jatoi said that it was mandatory to have copies of the ordinance before it was converted into a bill.
Discussion on flood
The minister for irrigation said that many people had started a campaign against the government, saying it had broken embankments. A judicial and departmental inquiry will be initiated, he said, adding that it was difficult for the government to look after 1,400 kilometres of embankments. “I want to correct those people who said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had decided to break a protective bund near Ali Wahan in 1976,” he said. “It occurred when water flowed over.”
There is a proposal to strengthen protective bunds from Kashmore to Keti Bunder. Only four breaches have taken place - near Tori (Guddu), LM Bund (Guddu), MS Bund (Kotri) and PB (Kotri). “Among others, our main priority was to save the barrages,” he said.
The PML-Q’s Muhammad Ali Malkani blamed the breaches on irrigation officials. “There was no employee of the irrigation department present when the breach occurred near the MS Bund,” he said. “People approached an official, but he refused, saying that there was no petrol in their machines.”
The PPP’s Dr Sikandar Mandhro said that there was a dire need to restore the capacity of creeks that get rid of floodwater to the sea.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2010.
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