Sindh to buy $16m helicopter for PDMA

Sindh to establish Thar and Kohistan Development Authorities through ordinances


Hafeez Tunio December 12, 2014

KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet on Friday decided to purchase a helicopter worth $15.95 million from an Italian company for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).

The cabinet meeting, chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the CM House, reviewed procurement proposals presented by chairman procurement committee Shazar Shamoon.

Shamoon said that that an advertisement for procuring a helicopter had been published on the official websites of PDMA, SPPRA and in the national and international dailies. In response to the advertisements, eight parties had procured the bid documents but only Augusta Westland, SPA Italy responded to the advertisement.

He said the technical committee, under Chief Pilot VIP Flights, evaluated technical bid. The procurement committee reviewed the 12-seater helicopter AW 139 in Pakistan, and held a meeting with the technical team of Agusta Westland.

Thar, Kohistan development authorities approved

The Sindh Chief Minister decided to establish two development authorities, Thar and Kohistan Development Authorities.

They will be created through two separate ordinances for which the chief minister directed the law department to complete the required formalities within a week.

Houses for the hungry in Thar

On the proposal of Minister for Information and Local Government Sharjeel Inam Memon, the chief minister approved a study for establishing a 6,000 unit housing scheme in drought affected areas of Thar.

Under the proposal, each house would have two reasonable wide rooms with a corridor within a compound wall. The scheme will provide residents with all the basic facilities such as health education, water and sanitation and recreation. The houses will be provided to the drought-affected people of Thar.

The scheme also includes a commercial corridor including a cattle colony, dairy farms and markets. These would be unsellable for 99 years.

Minister for Health Mr Jam Mehtab Dahar told the cabinet said that health services have been improved considerably in Thar. "What I am doing is to strengthen primary health care not only in Thar but in the entire province of Sindh," he said.

Kidnapped Hindus

Shah, on the complaint of MPA Mukesh Kumar, directed IG Sindh to recover two Hindus kidnapped from Kandhkot. "I want you to ensure proper security to Hindu Community, otherwise action would be taken accordingly."

The chief Minister also told the cabinet that he has taken up the issue of enforced disappearances and recoveries of their mutilated bodies with the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

"He has assured that his ministry would play its effective role to stop it."

COMMENTS (6)

yaz | 9 years ago | Reply

Screwed up priorities. Shame on Sindh government.

Bilal | 9 years ago | Reply

Good move by PDMA. Lets not be cynical of the purchase. Draught is not the type only of disaster that occurs in Sindh, the province has been hit by floods in recent times and the helicopter can come in handy to relocate flood victims or to move about victims that need immediate hospital care. We can't be throwing baseless accusations on PDMA until we've had a direct interaction with them. All the knowledge that most of us have about PDMA comes from news media who are in someone's pocket. I personally observed PDMA when I volunteered to help draught affectees and truth be told they were committed to help the people.

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