Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed the Sindh Essential Commodities Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding (Amendment) Bill, 2008, toughened the penalties to curb profiteering and hoarding of essential commodities on the eve of the holy month of Ramzan.
The provincial legislature also said yes to a bill calling for renaming Chandka Medical College, Larkana as Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University granting it the university status.
A general session of Sindh Assembly, which was held here at Assembly Building under the chairmanship of Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro with a two-hour delay at 11 am, also offered "Fateha" for founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Kashmiri Freedom Movement leader Abdul Aziz and others.
The bill, which replaced the Sindh Essential Commodities Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding Act, 2005, enacts that the offenders would, henceforth, be fined Rs 30,000 instead of Rs 10,000 and punished with six-month imprisonment instead of three months.
According to the Statement of Objects and Reasons for bill, which was tabled by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, in previous Act "the penalties, as provided in section 8, are so meager that the government is facing difficulties to curb the profiteering and hoarding of essential commodities. It is expedient to enhance the punishment and fine in the existing law."
Arif Mustafa Jatoi from opposition benches proposed an amendment to the bill that the fine should be increased to Rs 100,000 with one-year imprisonment during general debate on the bill, to be called as Sindh Essential Commodities Price and Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding (Amendment) Act, 2008.
Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haque rejecting Jatoi's amendment as "harsh" said the punishments should be proportionate to the level of crime and should be reasonable.
Revenue Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah termed the tabling of an amendment as invalid at the time when the house was discussing general principles of the bill. Minister for Bureau of Supply and Prices Syed Shoaib Ahmed Bukhari and Syed Sardar Ahmed urging the strong need for taking concerted measures to cope with the profiteering, hoarding and black-marketing before the fast approaching holy month of Ramzan requested Jatoi to withdraw his amendment.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders said the house should clear the bill without going into the legal complexities which would likely further delay the government's efforts.
Bukhari also suggested increasing the power of magistrates who deal with the price control issues. Soomro said the Pakistan People's Party-led government was doing much more than that done by his (Jatoi's) government during the past eight years.
Leader of the House Syed Qaim Ali Shah supporting the bill said that laws are made for benefit of the people and should, therefore, be implemented and be acceptable to the masses.
Terming the proposed law as simple, the chief minister said that besides creating deterrence against hoarding and profiteering, it would also help the government nullify the blame that it had done nothing against the black-marketeering.
The house unanimously adopted the bill when the speaker presented it for voting. After this the house also unanimously allowed renaming Chandka Medical Collage after the name of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto after a brief discussion.
Opposition Leader Jam Madad Ali also backed the move, saying that the University would serve the interest of people of Sindh.
WITHDRAWN RESOLUTION:
Earlier, Munawar Ali Abbasi of PPP tabled a resolution protesting the termination of some 80,000 employees of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD). The resolution demanded the federal government to withdraw the layoffs as 30,000 employees were from the Sindh province.
Abbasi, however, withdrew his resolution when Pir Mazhar and Soomro proposed some amendments in it and told the house that the issue would be taken up with Islamabad.
QUESTION HOUR: Earlier, responding to a query during the question hour Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed told the legislators that Hepatitis B and C was getting the status of an epidemic in Sindh. He said that while the province was fortunate enough to vaccinate some 69,000 patients of Hepatitis B, it was lacking remedy for Hepatitis C as no vaccine was discovered for the chronic disease so far.
Dr Ahmed said his government was taking various steps to make Sindh a polio-free province when questioned by party fellow Humera Alvani. He said though the World Health Organisation had set 2005 as a deadline for the eradication of polio from Pakistan, but due to some difficulties the deadline had got an extension for another five-year period.
The health minister also told the house that the government was considering introducing more effective laws for keeping a strong check on the fake doctors. Dr Ahmed pointed out various facilities being provided to the vaccinators, when Alvani complained that the provincial and city governments were unsupportive to the vaccinators. Later, the speaker prorogued the session for an indefinite period on the orders of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad.
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