Sindh Assembly empowers government to retrieve grabbed land: uniform education and admission policy demanded

Sindh Assembly, through unanimously passing the Cancellation of Bogus Entries (In the Record of Rights) of Government Land Act, 2009 into law on Wednesday, allowed the Sindh government to cancel the "massive" bogus entries based on forged documents in the record of rights which over the years have inflicted "wrongful" loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable land upon the provincial government.
The provincial legislature, which assembled here at Assembly Building with Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair, also nodded to a treasury backed resolution recommending to the Sindh government to provide equal opportunities to the province's students by formulating a "uniform and integrated" admission policy.
The 168-member house also said 'yes' to a resolution, tabled by Muzaffar Ali Shajra, calling upon the provincial government to carry out a comprehensive campaign of awareness for preventing genetically-transmitted diseases, like Thaleasimia, Hemophilia, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis etc, and make it mandatory for the couples to carry out blood test before getting married.
The third resolution ,which was jointly tabled by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and MQM leader Sardar Ahmed, and adopted by the Sindh Assembly, called upon Islamabad to restore the 'Guzara Allowance', to be paid from Zakat fund as "immediate relief" to the needy and poor persons in the shape of monthly financial assistance.
The provincial assembly, through passing a fourth resolution, backed by Public Accounts Committee's Chairman Jam Tamachi, extended a recommendation to the Sindh government for renaming "Taluka Daulatpur @ Kazi Ahmed" of District Shaheed Benazirabad as Taluka Kazi Ahmed.
Equally appreciated and welcomed by the treasury and opposition members the government bill number 15, which with an "overriding effect" became applicable retrospectively from January 1, 1985, was adopted in place of the government bill number 14, Cancellation of Bogus Entries of Government Land Bill, 2009, which was withdrawn by the law minister under Rule 98 of the Rules of Procedures.
"Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force or any agreement or judgement or order of a court, but subject to other provisions of this Act, the Secretary to Government of Sindh, Revenue Department specifically authorised by the Chief Minister Sindh in this behalf, if satisfied that an entry in the record of rights, made on or after 1st January, 1985, is bogus, may without notice, cancel such entry and on such cancellation, the land shall stand reverted to the government," says Section 3 of the six-section bill.
To avoid any highhandedness on the part of government over its subjects Section 4 of the bill carries an appeal saying: "Any person aggrieved by an order passed under Section 3, may within fifteen days from the date of such order, prefer an appeal to government and the order of government shall be final."
Section 6 provides for an indemnity and says: "No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie, against any person in respect of any thing which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act". According to the "Statement of Objects" the law was enacted in view of the "massive bogus entries" made in the record of rights relating to government land which had caused "wrongful loss" to the Government of Sindh by depriving thousands of acres of its valuable land, therefore, it was expedient to enact a law to cancel the bogus entries.
While Revenue Minister Mehtab Dhar fixed responsibility on some of the officials in his department, majority of the members put the blame on "Tapedaars" and "Mukhtyarkars" for the illegal entries of public land. Later, Dr Sikandar Mandhro lashed out at the elected representatives for their failure to develop a sense of oneness among the masses, an unfortunate reality which, he said, had left blemishes on the face of country's national canvas. He termed the persistence of an urban-rural discriminatory approach responsible for the so-far unbridgeable gap.
Calling for a uniform admission policy across the province, the PPP member blasted policy makers in the big universities in urban areas, like Karachi and Hyderabad, which had never bothered to play their "constitutional" role of spreading education through the setting up of campuses in other districts of the province, as provided by the relevant laws.
While other members, including Shazia Marri, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Zahid Bhargari and Ayaz Soomro, were supportive of the move "without any ifs and buts", Sardar Ahmed warned against undermining the efficiency of education institutions in rural areas, which according to Dr Mandhro were not able to provide standard education like their counterparts in urban Sindh.
After a short debate the house adopted Dr Mandhro's resolution saying: "This assembly resolves and strongly recommends to the Government of Sindh of formulate a uniform and integrated admission policy providing equal opportunities to the students of whole province to get advantage of better education in urban institutions, imparting quality education in various fields of study, and to spread out such facilities through out the entire province by establishing Campuses of such institutions to extend quality education to every one which is the basic right of all citizens of state safeguarded in the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan."
Earlier, the lawmakers, including Najmuddin Abro, Jam Tamachi and Nadir Magsi, on point of order, complained against the lukewarm response of Passco towards procurement of paddy from the growers and criticised the Corporation for its failure to set up Purchase Centres in the province.
They were critical of violation of the government's rate of Rs 700 per maund paddy in the market, where the growers were being paid only Rs 300 to Rs 350. While Tamachi urged the government to ensure that paddy be sold at least at Rs 600 per maund, Food Minister Nadir Magsi proposed the centre-backed export of surplus rice to help the "poor" growers get a reasonable price for their commodity.
During Question Hour, Minister for Irrigation and Power Murad Ali Shah responded to various supplementary questions of the members and said Irsa was working on the water distribution formula for the provinces in accordance with 1991 Water Accord. The Speaker, quoting an order of Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat ul Ibad Khan, adjourned the session for an indefinite perioud.