Sindh government under a maiden 'strategic shift' is introducing a five-year development plan to achieve greater economic benefits, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah told Sindh Assembly on Friday while presenting his government's two-year performance report before the house.
The provincial legislature, which reassembled here at Sindh Assembly Building under the chairmanship of Speaker Nisar Khuhro with a two-hour delay at around 11am, through adopting a joint resolution unanimously felicitated all democratic forces of the country on the passage of 18th Amendment by the Parliament.
Soon after the chair brought the house to order the members like Humera Alwani, Jam Madad Ali and an MQM lawmaker voiced their concern, on a point of order, against the scarcity of irrigation and potable water in rural Sindh, non-availability of gunnysacks for the wheat growers and the killing of an MQM worker in Hyderabad at the hands of criminal elements.
After Water and Irrigation Minister Murad Ali Shah and Law Minister Ayaz Soomro assured the house to do the needful to address the complaints, the latter moved a motion requesting the chair to allow Leader of the House Qaim Ali Shah to present a two-year performance report of the Sindh government.
Underlining various socio-political and economic achievements made by the provincial government during the last two years, the chief minister cited the consolidating of democracy, the passage of 18th Amendment and developing consensus on the 7th NFC Award as landmark achievements of the government.
Terming the internal security as a most important challenge, Qaim said the federal and provincial governments had remained 'under stress' on account of range of political, economic, financial and other issues during the last two 'challenging' years.
He said the 18th Amendment is an attempt to take the 1973 Constitution back to its original spirit. "This would have deep impacts on provincial autonomy and many other issues of the federation," he said amid repeated thumping of desks.
Though the chief minister used the words 'mis-recording' while complaining about exclusion of some of the National Finance Commission's (NFC) recommendations on GST on services in its final notification, the two-year performance report made available to Business Recorder quotes the chief executive as saying that:
"There was a blunder at the federal level which we immediately pointed out and it is being corrected." The chief minister told the house that Sindh was now awaiting its final correction. About the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT), he said Islamabad had made commitments to the International Monetary Fund and all the four provinces were asked to place the VAT bills before their respective assemblies.
He said the draft bills had reached the Sindh Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance and the final decision would be taken by the provincial legislature. Referring to the targeted killings, 10th Muharram blast and the subsequent riots as intermittent and serious 'disruptions', the chief minister, while dwelling on the law and order situation, felt free to forcefully assert that his government had been able to maintain peace in the province, especially in Karachi.
Dwelling his government's three-pillar policy that, he said, included Economic Development, Poverty Reduction, Human Development and Service Delivery, the chief minister said his government was working on a development plan to get its investments fit into a proper vision rather than come out as disjointed schemes.
"This is the first time any provincial government would have a five year development plan," he said. The government, Qaim said, would create regional hubs by concentrating development efforts in a few economic growth nodes in the North, South, Centre and South East.
He said these regional growth nodes would be given a high speed road and/or rail connectivity with Karachi and the surrounding towns. He said the government would, firstly, develop a master plan for the existing and new programmes. A professionally competent institutional mechanism that enables the introduction of the new technology would be put in place.
Secondly, efforts would be made to replace the current flood irrigation practices by appropriate water saving technology. Thirdly, under the strategy to conserve water for food security and raising productivity, a highly technical institutional mechanism would be evolved.
He said despite fiscal constraints caused by the shortage of 15 to 20 percent funds from the centre, the province stood committed to development outlay expecting that this investment would definitely yield dividends. About the reform in education sector, he said the government had a plan to bring in a structural change through a strategy to establish fewer schools, but with full complement of teachers, teaching aids and other facilities.
He said residential schools would be established initially at the district level and subsequently at Taluka level to cater to students from class 6 to 12. "These strategic shifts are expected to help us bring better results from public investments and usher better prospects for economic development in the province", the chief minister announced.
Terming the water and agriculture productivity as his prime focus, the chief minister said work was under progress on 60 water channels under different schemes for conserving water through the lining of irrigation channels and distributaries.
Referring to agriculture sector, he said, as compared to previous government regime (2007-08) the production of major crops had increased considerably ie cotton by 60 percent, paddy by 33 percent and wheat by 8 percent due to effective policy measures adopted by the present government and incentives provided to farming community.
Later, Sindh Assembly passed a resolution which was jointly tabled by Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haque, Tourism Minister Shazia Marri, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Murad Ali Shah, Rafique Engineer, Amir Nawab Khan, Jam Madad Ali, Taimour Talpur, Arif Mustafa Jatoi and others.
Text of the resolution is as follows: "This Assembly felicitates all democratic forces on the passing of the 18th Amendment from the National Assembly and the Senate of Pakistan; recognises this historic achievement as the triumph of democratic forces who have freed the 1973 Constitution given by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from the scourge of dictators; pays tribute to honourable President Asif Ali Zardari and prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for furthering the struggle of Shaheed Muharam Benazir Bhutto who gave her life for the liberty of her nation; acknowledges the perseverance of the constitutional committee headed by Senator Mian Raza Rabbani and salutes the foresight of all political leaders committed to the spirit of national reconciliation." After passage of the resolution the chair was quick in deferring all other business and calling it a day to meet again on Monday at 10am.
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