Local government - Commissionerate bill sent to MQM: Farooqui

HYDERABAD: A bill for the restoration of the commissionerate system has been handed over to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), said Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Information Sharmila Farooqui at a press conference at the Thatta Press Club on Friday.

Hopefully, the MQM would return the bill within the first week of January 2011 with its comments, she added.

About the introduction of the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST), the adviser said an expansion in the tax net was the only solution to bringing the country out of the economic crisis and putting it on the track of development.

To a question about the remarks of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, she said there was no threat to Islam in Pakistan. Making amendments in the law is parliament’s job and it was the PPP’s policy to take all parliamentarians into confidence.

Farooqui said that the distribution of seed and fertiliser free of charge had started and more than Rs10 billion has been disbursed among the flood-affected people, she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th,  2010.