Biometric attendance system being expanded to other districts: Sindh Assembly told

Sindh government is widening its biometric attendance system for education department to other districts of the province to improve performance of the public sector academies, Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah told the Sindh Assembly on Thursday.
The minister, who also holds culture department portfolio, said that the government faced problems when the system was first introduced. However, the department is gradually overcoming the issues and expanding the system to other districts to improve the performance of education department, he replied to a call-attention notice placed by the GDA's female legislator, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi.
She was of the view that the education department's teachers are called to Karachi for their biometric registration, as many of them have to travel to the metropolis from far-flung areas of the province. "Sometimes teachers' salaries are held up," she said and called for expanding of biometric system to other districts, as well.
The minister also acknowledged that biometric system was being misused previously, especially, when it comes to the transfers and postings of the teachers. He said that the government now banned the transfers and postings of teachers. He said that only legally appointed academics are enrolled to the biometric system with their official identity codes. Absconding and ghost teachers have been excluded from the system registration, he told the house.
Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that the government would install CCTV cameras in Orangi Town to monitor street crimes. Replying to the call-attention notice of MQM's Adeel Shahzad, the minister assured that there is a dire need of such monitoring devices to cope with crimes.
The house also adopted a resolution to provide ownership rights to the residents of Pakistan Quarters and Martin Quarters. MQM's Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan had tabled the resolution seeking to end the evacuation of residents living in said two areas for decades. Federal government was urged to submit a report in the Supreme Court, in this connection.
Ruling PPP's Marvi Rashidi also tabled a resolution to condemn the federal government's move to remove Benazir Bhutto's name from official logo of Income Support Program, besides changing the name of Islamabad Airport that was previously named after former premier.
However, PTI's Khurrum Sher Zaman Khan rejected the criticism from the treasury benches, saying that the PPP should relinquish the politics of slogans and pictures. He said the Income Support Program has been plagued, politically. He taunted PPP, saying they may demand Asif Ali Zardari's picture on currency notes but it is not possible.
Syed Sardar Shah also condemned the removal of Benazir's picture from the BISP logo. Khurrum Sher Zaman also asked the treasury to explain KMC's notices to cancel the lease of five legal markets. He said that the move is feared to render 150,000 people unemployed. Saeed Ghani, Sindh Local Government Minister, said that he is unaware of the notices and would inform the house soon about it.