Sindh wants census on March 25 CCI meeting’s agenda

Karachi

The Sindh government would be officially approaching the Centre with a request for inclusion of the nationwide census and related matters in the agenda for the March 25 Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting to be held in Islamabad. 

Directives to this effect were issued by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at Wednesday’s CCI agenda review meeting that was attended by top members of the provincial bureaucracy including Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Almauddin Bullo, Additional Chief Secretary Mohammad Waseem, Secretary Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Mushtaq Shaikh, Secretary Irrigation Zaheer Hyder Shah, and Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput. 

His orders came after the IPC secretary informed the participants that the CCI agenda issued by the Ministry of Provincial Coordination only allows for discussion on formulation of the fourth 10-year National Flood Protection Plan (NFPP).

Voicing his surprise over the topic’s exclusion, Shah said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had, after the last CCI meeting, assured that the census matter would be taken up when the forum would convene on March 25. “I had presented the joint recommendation of all political parties who attended our census-related APC to the CCI members, and the PM had promised to speak to the army chief for security arrangements for the census process," he said. 

“For us, this is a most important issue and must be accorded relevant priority,” said Shah, and directed the IPC secretary to approach the IPC Division for inclusion of the census arrangements in the CCI meeting agenda.

Briefing the CM on the National Flood Protection Plan-IV, the irrigation secretary said the plan was focused towards integrated flood management through non-structural measures such as reservoir operations, flood forecasting and early warning, flood risk zoning, watershed management, flood proofing and insurance and disaster management, among other measures. 

The CM directed the chief secretary and irrigation secretary to approach experts for preparation of proposals for the NFPP. Sharing general guidelines for the proposals, Shah said flood protection measures, rehabilitation of Manchhar Lake, stoppage of sea intrusion, remodeling of irrigation systems, review of possible flood escape channels, and other such issues must be addressed.