Provincial Minister for Labour, Education, Literacy and Human Resources Saeed Ghani has said that the Sindh government is making smart cards for 600,000 workers with the help of NADRA to eliminate fake registration cards in SESSI.

Speaking at a meeting of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), he said that with this initiative all genuine workers will be benefited. He said that the mayor of Karachi had been talking about "snatching of powers", but as a matter of fact no one had been stripped of their powers.

Local Government did not mean that we had retained all the power with us, but it meant that a lot was in the domain of the federal government and for that the mayor must talk to the federal government, he added.

If the local government started working on projects which cost more than the allocated budget then the local government had to take permission from the provincial government just as the provincial government would have to take the permission of the federal government for any mega project, he explained.

The provincial minister said that not only the mayor was a part of the local government but the KMC, the DMCs and the UCs were also a part of the local government. For the lands of the KPT, the Railways and the DHA, the mayor must contact the federal government, he said.

He said that the local tax system had been given to the districts and more power was being given to the union councils. "We are thinking about giving power to the UCs so that more work could be done at the grassroots level," he added.

Saeed Ghani said that he would support industrialists of the Korangi industrial area in their tree plantation drive. He said that problems of Karachi had not been resolved despite the fact that the President of Pakistan and the governor of Sindh are from Karachi.

There is a representation of Karachi in the federal government, but no work had been done for the city and issues of business community remained unaddressed. He said that the federal government was not interested in addressing issues related to the EOBI.

The President of KATI, Sheikh Umer Rehan, expressed his serious concern over the lack of interest in addressing industry issues and strongly protested against the attitude of the ministers towards these issues.

He alleged that the attitude of the federal ministers made it plainly evident that the prime minister had no control over his ministers. The president of KATI said that those who had been against protocol were now using the protocol the most.

Sheikh Umer Rehan said that the government was not owning the industry of Karachi. He said that in order to increase exports, establishment of effluent treatment plant was the need of the hour.

"Even after number of letters and our demands, funds have not been allocated for the combined effluent treatment plant," he said. The Chairman of Labour, SESSI & EOBI, Zahid Saeed said that with the help of the Sindh government, "we are ready to plant 100,000 trees. KATI does not require fund or place, but the support of the provincial government".