Sindh cabinet bans polythene, plastic bags

KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet taking a historic and environmental friendly decision has decided to ban polythene and plastic bags in the province in phases, and in the first and initial phase ban has been imposed in Sukkur district which would be implemented within next three months.

The cabinet meeting was held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at 7th Floor of New Sindh secretariat. All the provincial ministers, advisors and special assistants attended the meeting. Those who attended the meeting include chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Sindh Dr Kaleem Imam and concerned Provincial Secretaries.

The cabinet was told that normal plastic bag takes 400 to 1000 years to degrade and it is a startling fact that almost every piece of plastic ever made still exists in the environment. The amount of plastic waste has been increasing about 10 percent each year for past 20 years.

It was pointed out that as many as 12 billion to 43 billion bags were used in Pakistan in 1990-19. In 2005-6 the consumption rose to 43 billion and it increased to 55 billion in 2007-8. There is a 15 percent annual growth of the production of plastic bags, the estimated use of plastic bags in the country by 2018-19 would be 140 billion.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that his government has promulgated Sindh Environment Protection (SEP) Act 2014 and its Section 14(3) reads as “no person shall import, manufacture, stockpile, trade, supply, distribute or sell any scheduled plastic product which is non-degradable.” He further read “the scheduled plastic products must be oxo-biodegradable and the pro-degradant used must be approved by the agency.”

The cabinet discussed the matter and said the ban may cause loss to the traders. At this the chief minister said that nothing was above the healthy environment. He directed the Minister Environment Taimore Talpur to discuss the matter with the traders. However, the cabinet decided to impose ban on plastic bag all over Sindh, but in the first phase ban has been imposed in Sukkur where it would be implemented within three months. Latter, the ban would be expanded to other districts.

Pre-mature release: The cabinet took up the issue of Human Rights of terminally ill prisoners lying in different jails of the province for their pre-mature release. On the instruction of the government, the home department had sent a list of 27 prisoners terminally ill which as forwarded to health department for constitution of medical board.

 The board recommended 12 cases, including the one who is condemned prisoner, the other one is Indian National, therefore his case has been sent to Ministry of Interior, the third one has been released from Hyderabad in July 2018. The four prisoners are Under Trial and their pre-mature release cases were forwarded to the cabinet for approval.

The cabinet approved their pre-mature release on humanitarian grounds. The chief minister also directed Minister for Jail Nasir Shah to send the list of the prisoners who were still languishing in jails for want of surety and also provide him with a list of foreign nationals lying the jail. “I want to take necessary action on humanitarian grounds,” he said.

Vehicles Purchase Banned: The Sindh cabinet discussing the use of luxury vehicles approved a proposal to authorize the Governor, the chief minister, Speaker, Chief justice of Sindh High Court, Chief Secretary, IG Police, two additional IGs to use armoured vehicles. The ministers or any officers identified to have threat would be provided an armoured vehicle available in the pool.

The chief minister was told that there were 28 vehicles of 1800 CC available in the pool for ministers. Most of the vehicles have already been allotted to ministers. 

At this the chief ministere directed Chief Secretary to notify a ban on the purchase of new vehicles for ministers, advisors and special assistants for next three years. The news ministers would use vehicle available in the government pool.

Bill approved: Sindh cabinet approved three bills for their introduction in the assembly for approval. They are Shaheed Mohterma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma (SMBBIT) Karachi, Sindh Institute of cardio Vascular Diseases and Sindh Institute of Child Health And Neonatology, (SICHN) Karachi.

The cabinet was told that Trauma was increasingly recognized as global public health epidemic. WHO has predicted that trauma would rise from 9th leading burden of diseases in 1990 to 3rd leading cause in 2020 worldwide. According to WHO 2011 fact sheet, over 19 percent of the world’s fatalities on the road occur in low income and middle-income countries.

In Sindh there was no such institute to cope with accidents and injuries victims. Therefore, Trauma center was established in Karachi. The center is successfully providing services and now under an autonomous status the Trama Center which has been named as SMBBIT would not only establish its satellites all over Sindh but serve as teaching institute.

Similarly, the Sindh Institute of Child Health And Neonatology, Karachi would also establish its satellite centers as has been established by NICVD and serve as teaching hospitals and offer diplomas in different but concerned sectors.

Police Rules: Sindh cabinet discussed the deraft Sindh Police (posting, Transfer & Tenure) Rules 2017 and constituted a committee comprising Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh, IG Police to review the draft give their recommendations so that it could be sent to the assembly.

Recruitment Rules of IG Prison and DIG Prisons was also discussed in the cabinet. It was pointed out that the caretaker government has made amendment in Rule 890 for which it was not compitenet. The cabinet after discussion restored the original Rule 890 with aslight amdemnet. Now, “the Inspector general of Prison shall be appointed by promotion from amongst the deputy Inspector General of Prison.”

Wheat Price: Foood department presented an item and requested the cabinet to fix issue price of wheat of crop 2018. The cabinet was told that during 2018, the food department procured 1.4 million Matric Tons (MMT) of wheat at the support price of Rs3250 per bag. The department has carried forward wheat stocks of 0.456 MMT of preceding year. Hence the total wheat stock available with the department was 1.775 MMTs.

It was also pointed out that after allocation of one MMT of what for release, a balance of around 0.775 MMT would be left with the department. In order to off-load the left over balance case has been taken up with federal government for allowing export of 0.5 MMTs of wheat. The remaining 0.275 MMT would be reserved to meet the needs of drought affected areas and other emergencies.

The food department requested the cabinet to approve Issue price of wheat at Rs3,150 (packed in PP bag) and Rs3,250 (packed in Jute bag) and subsidy of Rs7.656 billion may also be approved in order to retire the commercial banks borrowing.

The chief minister constituted a committee under Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah to meet with the traders and the department people and give his recommendation for fixation of Issue price. “My view is very simple that I don’t want to exert extra burden of subsidy on the exchequer,” Murad Ali Shah said.

SCSHF: The cabinet on the recommendation of the selection committee appointed Iqbal Nafees Khan as Managing Director Sindh Civil Servants Housing Foundation (SCSHF) for a period of two years.