Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that an unprecedented tsunami of price-hike in the country has deprived the poor of even essential food items, due to which the provincial government has decided to give relief to the low-paid employees in the public and private sector by ensuring the minimum monthly wage of Rs25,000 in the province.
People are in severe pain and they do not even have the courage to cry, he said as he addressed a press conference at the CM House on Wednesday just after presiding over a meeting of the provincial cabinet.
The CM announced that the provincial government was setting up a forum at its labour and industries departments to ensure proper implementation of the minimum wage in the public as well as the private sector.
He said the Sindh cabinet had unanimously expressed serious reservations over defective, immature and unrealistic policies of the federal government that had ended up in a record price hike, due to which even white-collar workers were unable to afford square meals for their families.
“This is quite a painful situation,” Shah said, adding that in view of the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the Sindh cabinet had decided to task the labour and industries departments with implementing the minimum wage of Rs25,000 in all the government organisations and private sector.
He recalled that when his government had enhanced the minimum wage from Rs17,500 to Rs25,000, he was criticised by the federal government. “But keeping in view the situation and capabilities of the federal government which spends its precious time to crush its political opponents and promulgate ordinances, we took this important decision which has now become the need of the hour,” he said.
Flour prices
To a question, the CM said the federal government had failed to stop wheat smuggling last year and it also failed this year, as a result of which wheat flour prices had increased considerably.
He remarked that wheat flour was available at Rs77 per kilogramme (kg) in Sindh but where the government had kept the flour price at Rs55 per kg, the flour was of such a poor quality that it was not fit even for consumption by cattle.
Malir Expressway
Responding to a question regarding the Malir Expressway, Shah said its alignment was changed a bit to save some old villages but with the change of the route, the cost of the project has increased.
He explained that the change in alignment was not acceptable to some of the stakeholders, due to which the Sindh government decided to take all the stakeholders on board, and it was the reason behind the delay in construction of the project.
Health units
On the recommendation of the health department, the provincial cabinet approved handover of eight health facilities in Larkana district to the Peoples Primary Health Care Initiative (PPHI).
The cabinet also constituted a committee comprising Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh, Law Adviser Murtaza Wahab, the PPHI board of directors chairman, general administration secretary and health secretary to restructure the PPHI board of governors as per the Public Sector Companies rules 2013 and remove anomalies, if any, in this regard.
Land for Navy
On the request of the Pakistan Navy, the provincial cabinet approved the allotment of 200 acres of land in Deh Lal Bakhar in Karachi to the Pakistan Navy on a 99-year lease for the establishment of the Navy Cooperative Housing Society.
New police unit
The cabinet was told that a new unit of the police was being established under the name of Crime Scene Unit (CSU). The unit would primarily deal with the identification, collection, proper packing, transport and analysis of evidence material of a crime incident.
The government has worked out a plan to establish CSUs in 31 police districts of the province, for which Rs194.4 million have been allocated. At present, 10 such units had been set up in Karachi but they were not properly functional due to unavailability of the required vehicles.
The cabinet approved the plan to make such units functional. These units would be established in SSP offices. The cabinet also approved the procurement of the required vehicles for all the proposed 31 units for Rs177.281 million.