The provincial government is planning to introduce new transport projects including new busses, light trains and trams for the different cities of the province, Sindh Transport Minister Syed Nasir Shah told the Sindh Assembly on Friday.
He said that the government was in talks with a Chinese firm to laid tramways, besides bringing in some 4000 highly comfortable buses for Karachi, of which 500 would be employed in the first phase. The Chinese firm will give its comprehensive presentation with recommendations to the government on the projects in a couple of weeks, he said.
"No agreement has yet been made," he told the house while replying to a call attention notice by Rana Ansar of MQM, who sought the official views on the new transportation projects in the province.
She asked whether the government would bring in 14,000 buses for the entire province.
"Since Karachi Mayor is out of the prison, he and other stakeholders will be consulted on new buses routes and monorails projects," Nasir said. He said that the government had also asked the firm to set up its assembly plants for the buses in the province with a view to generate jobs for the locals.
Sindh Education Minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar told the house that the government would make the private schools managements to follow the official rules. He said that a meeting was scheduled with the private schools managements next week to discuss three points with them including excessive fee issue and teaching of Holy Quran and Sindhi language to the students.
The Minster, who was replying to PTI's legislator, Khurrum Sher Zaman Khan's adjournment motion on heavy fees by private schools, said that the proposed meeting would help improve the situation for the students. Speaker Sindh Assembly Aga Siraj Durrani called the heavy fee matter a 'big' issue.
The house adopted a resolution tabled by PPP's Syed Owais Qadir Shah, asking the Sindh government to appoint those applicants to the vacant posts, who had passed the combined competitive examination 2013 held by Sindh Public Service Commission. Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Khuhro said that the mover had rightly pointed out the key issue of jobs for the unemployed youth in the province.
A first quarter report (July-December 2015 and July-December 2016) on the NFC Award was tabled in the house. The report detailed the revenue collection and expenditures for 2016-17, besides development spending. Karachi's mayor Wasim Akhtar paid a visit to the Assembly which is first since he was released from the central prison this week. Speaker and members from the treasury welcomed him to the visitors' galleries. The assembly will now meet on Monday morning at 10:00 am.