Sindh Cabinet reviews law and order: crisis management cell to be established

The prevailing law and order situation in the aftermath of the bomb blast in a mosque at Sindh Madressahtul Islam which claimed 14 lives and injured up to about 100 persons, came under detailed discussion at a meeting of the Sindh Cabinet here on Saturday.
The cabinet meeting, held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammed Khan Mahar, offered Fateha for the departed souls and prayed for early recovery of injured persons.
Later, briefing newsmen about the cabinet proceedings, Sindh Secretary of Information, Ms Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, said the cabinet members expressed their views in detail as to various facets of the incident and subsequent events like irresponsible attitude of certain officials, non-availability of medicines, mismanagement, etc.
The Inspector General Police briefed the cabinet, in detail, about Friday's incident and informed it about the ongoing investigations.
In the light of views expressed by the cabinet members, the Chief Minister directed the Secretary of Health to ensure availability of medicines to injured persons in hospitals wherever they were admitted.
It was decided that compensation announced by the government on Friday will he paid to blast victims within three days.
After review of the whole situation, the cabinet decided establishment of a permanent crisis management cell which would address all such emergencies like bomb blasts, earthquake, fire, etc, so that problems which were faced on Friday are averted in any future incident.
The cabinet had a detailed review of Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2002-03, and Additional Chief Secretary for Development said the utilisation of the ADP remained good.
He said till March, the utilisation in this respect was at Rs 11 billion and he termed the same as a record.
The cabinet discussed the lines on which the privatisation of Thatta and Dadu Sugar Mills was to be carried out.
In this connection, a committee was formed with Minister for Industries, Mohammad Adil Siddiqui, as its convener and Provincial Ministers Mohammed Usman Malkani and Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh as its members.
The cabinet gave approval to the decisions taken by the committees concerned with regard to handing over the allotment of auctioned plots of Board of Revenue in Scheme-33.
The cabinet also took up the issue of gender reform action plan submitted by the Department of Women Development.
It was decided that before giving approval to the project, it should be evaluated first. For this purpose a committee, headed by Minister for Women Development, Dr Saeeda Malik, with Provincial Ministers Shoaib Bukhari, Nadir Akmal Leghari and Qamar Mansoor as members was formed.
The cabinet gave approval for sending the Prohibition of Manufacturing and Storing of Gutka and manpuri in the Sindh Assembly.
However, it was decided that the draft of the bill will first be vetted by the law department before forwarding it to the Assembly for legislation.