Technical education board now CM’s domain

Karachi
The provincial assembly unanimously passed a law on Friday that transfers the controlling authority of the provincial technical education board from the governor to the chief minister.
The controlling authority of the boards of intermediate and secondary education in the province’s public sector has already been transferred from the governor to chief minister in accordance with the devolution of executive powers (of subjects earlier on the concurrent legislative list) from Centre to the provinces under 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The passage of the Sindh Board of Technical Education (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was supported by the lawmakers of ruling Pakistan People’s Party as well as those belonging to opposition parties in the House including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
The bill was moved by parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro.
Three other bills were also introduced in the House by the government - the Sindh Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana (Amendment) Bill, 2015; and the Malir University of Science and Technology Karachi Bill, 2015.
Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani announced that the governor had given his assent to nine bills earlier passed by the House.
They include the Sindh Service Tribunals (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Sindh
Security of Vulnerable Establishments Bill, 2015; the Sindh Service Tribunals (Third Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Sindh Service Tribunals (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund Bill, 2014; the Indus University of Health Sciences Bill, 2015; the AO Post Graduate Institute of Orthopaedic Sciences Bill, 2015; and the Sindh Finance Bill, 2015.
The recently promulgated the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 was presented before the assembly. It amended the KWSB Act-1996, envisaging the sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine up to Rs1 million for people involved in water theft or operators of illegal water hydrants in the city.

K-Electric
Local government minister Syed Nasir Hussain told the House that the federal government should warn the K-Electric not to create problems for the residents of the city in terms of water supply.
The minister was speaking on an adjournment motion moved by MQM legislator Heer Ismail Soho on the issue of power suspension to the KWSB’s pumping stations. The adjournment motion, however, was declared out of order by the speaker.
The provincial minister said the K-Electric had entered into a written agreement under which there should be no suspension of power supply to pumping stations. However, he added, power outages were still occurring at pumping stations, affecting the city’s water supply.

No danger of major flood
Irrigation and information Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro told the House that there was no immediate threat of a major flood in the province during the current monsoon season.
Responding to a call attention notice of PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Seher Abbasi, the minister said that during month of August, the flow of river at the three barrages of the province would range between 600,000 and 700,000 cusecs. However, the situation was quite different from the major river floods of the year 2010.
Khuhro said around 45 locations on different river embankments in the province had been declared sensitive by the government during the current flood warning and the pressure of the Indus River flow had increased at 18 points.
He added that timely action by the irrigation department staff and officials had prevented major destruction.
The minister, however, conceded that the flood had displaced many people living in the catchment areas.

Senior citizen centres
Parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said a scheme costing Rs70 million had been planned for setting up centres in the province for taking proper care of senior citizens.
The minister was responding to written and oral queries of lawmakers during the question hour related to the provincial social welfare department.
The proposed centres would provide lodging, food, medical treatment, recreational, and other necessary facilities of life to elderly people.
Besides, he added, the planning and development department had also prepared a scheme costing over Rs200 million for upgrading the existing centres for the treatment and education of disabled persons.
Dr Mandhro said the centres earlier established for the welfare of women had not proved to be beneficial as women should establish cooperative societies on their own for this purpose and the government would financially aide them in this connection.