Lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously passed the Sindh Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues law 2013, banning human organs' trade in the province. The law also aims at facilitating removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and tissues for therapeutic purposes.
The bill was moved by Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro in line with the 18th Amendment, which received a unanimous vote from both sides of the political divide in the provincial assembly. Soomro credited Dr Adib Rizvi for the bill formation who wanted the provincial assembly to pass a law to make a law to facilitate donors of human organs and ban its trade.
Terming Dr Rizvi an angel, Syed Sardar Ahmed of MQM expressed the hope that the law would help curb illegal transplantation of human organs in the province. He said his party supported the bill, adding that illegal trade of human organs also occurred in other provinces. Sindh Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq said that the government had increased its annual grant to Rs 2 billion, up from Rs 1 billion, for the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation.
Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palejo said that the law would help streamline the entire system, adding that previously, there were no rules to ban or regulate illegal human organ transplantations. The law prescribes a 10-year imprisonment and Rs 1 million in fine or both on elements violating the law, which will come into force at immediately all over SIndh.
The house also passed 'the Dawood University of Engineering and Technology Bill, 2013' with a unanimous vote. The bill was moved by Pir Mazharul Haq who said that after the adoption of the of 18th Amendment, improving higher education was the responsibility of the province.
Criticising the Higher Education Commission, he said that it had damaged the academic infrastructure of the Dawood University of Engineering and Technology which only had one PhD teacher for guiding students. Accusing the HEC of denying scholarships to teaching staff, he said that it was responsible for the degradation of academic standards. He said that after the founding of the Sindh Higher Education Commission, all universities would get maximum government attention and support.
The university, he said, would offer courses in new disciplines, including meteorology, petroleum and engineering. MQM's Izharul Hassan submitted an amendment to the relevant bill, seeking to change the university's admission policy, but it was rejected by a majority in the house. He also urged the government to introduce an exchange programme with other provinces, accommodating one another's students at universities.
He said the treasury should set up a syndicate in the university to help evolve a new admission policy. However, Pir Mazhar, Murad Ali Shah, Syeda Marvi Rashdi opposed the suggestion, saying that the government should determine the university's policies Terming Karachi University's syndicate biased, Rashdi said it had restricted admissions for all districts of Sindh (excluding Karachi) to just 33 students annually, while its reserved about 6,000 seats for students from Karachi.
MQM's senior leader, Syed Sardar Ahmed said three of the country's oldest universities, including Punjab University, Sindh University and Karachi University, had syndicates to run academic and other policies. "The syndicate decides the admission policy," he insisted. Despite opposition, the treasury benches adopted the 'Sindh Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2013' with a majority of vote in the house. MQM and other parties opposed the move.
Syed Sardar Ahmed said that the amendment would help ensure corruption by "ending merit in award of contracts". According to the law, the Sindh government can make procurements without floating tender advertisements. The house also adopted the 'Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law Karachi Bill 2013' with a unanimous vote.
Deputy Speaker chaired the session and announced that the Sindh Governor has given assent to three bills, including the Sindh Civil Servant (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Sindh High Density Development Board (Amendment) Bill 2011, and the Sindh (Repeal of the Sindh Peoples Local Government) Act, 2012 and Revival of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, (1979) Bill, 2013.
Comments
Comments are closed.