PA treasury members censure ECP ban on fresh govt recruitment

The ban imposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on fresh recruitment by federal and provincial governments prior to the forthcoming general elections came under serious criticism from the treasury benches during Monday’s sitting of the Sindh Assembly’s current session.

The criticism came from Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who was responding to a calling-attention notice raised by opposition MPA Syed Ameer Hyder Shah Sheerazi.

The calling-attention notice pertained to the closure of a primary school for boys in a union council of Taluka Mirpur Sakro in District Thatta. The parliamentary affairs minister said the ban imposed by the ECP would prove counterproductive for the government in rendering its vital services in important sectors such as school education.

He said the ban imposed by the ECP would hamper the ability of the government to overcome the shortage of teaching staff in public schools, which otherwise would be closed if teachers were not appointed there.

Similar is the case of the other important departments where the provincial government could not overcome shortage of officials and personnel related to mandatory services. “Moreover, the election commission has imposed the ban on recruitment with retrospective effect, as the notification of ban came on April 10 or 11, while it imposed the ban on recruitment with effect from April 1. This is highly unwarranted,” said the provincial minister.

“If the assemblies pass any bill with retrospective effect such as in this case, then it is stated by the concerned quarters that it is a black law.” Khuhro said the union council in question has 35 schools, of which 29 are open, adding that out of the open schools, 28 are for boys while one is for girls.

He said the provincial government had to undertake recruitment of teachers to overcome the situation of the closure of public schools like the instance of closed schools in this union council of Thatta.

While the ban on fresh recruitment imposed by the ECP is in place, the provincial government will try to reopen the closed schools by transferring teachers from other schools, he added.

Abrupt adjournment

The sitting was adjourned abruptly for 10 minutes by Deputy Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza owing to unruly scenes in the House as opposition lawmakers protested against the rejection of an adjournment motion.

The adjournment motion in question was moved by an opposition lawmaker belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Nusrat Saher Abbasi. It pertained to the recent instance of recruitment of excise & taxation officers by the provincial government allegedly on the basis of nepotism and favouritism.

The deputy speaker ordered voting in the House on the motion and announced its rejection as it could not get the requisite number of favourable votes from the opposition lawmakers.

Both the parliamentary affairs minister and the deputy speaker noted that the mover of the adjournment motion did not attach any credible proof or evidence to prove her assertion mentioned in the motion.

The mover of the motion and her colleague lawmakers on the opposition benches vociferously protested in the House against the chair’s decision, forcing the deputy speaker to abruptly adjourn the PA proceedings for 10 minutes.  

Delayed telecast

The deputy speaker asked the provincial assembly’s secretary to ensure that a mechanism is placed to delay the live broadcast of the proceedings of the House by at least a minute.

Both the deputy speaker and the parliamentary affairs minister said that delayed mechanism for live broadcast of coverage of the House’s proceedings should be in place to ensure that any of the uncalled for and unparliamentarily remarks uttered during the session are not aired live.

The parliamentary affairs minister said the chair orders expunging from the record of the proceedings of the House the utterance of unparliamentarily remarks by any lawmaker during the session, but such orders have no value if the proceedings are broadcast live.

This discussion was the result of the alleged uncalled for remarks during the PA proceedings by an opposition lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Kamran Akhtar.

His alleged unparliamentarily remarks came as he was speaking on his calling-attention notice pertaining to the failure of the provincial government to ensure upgrading the posts of grades 1 to 15 of the non-teaching staff of the NED University of Engineering & Technology in accordance with the government’s own policy decision to this effect.

The opposition lawmaker said it seemed that the non-teaching staffers of certain public universities in different cities of the province are being discriminated against on ethnic grounds and not being given due privileges since the time the Sindh chief minister has assumed the controlling authority of the universities in the province.

Responding to the calling-attention notice, the parliamentary affairs minister said public universities are supposed to be autonomous institutions and as such the government cannot directly impose its decisions on them such as upgrading the posts of non-teaching staffers of universities.

He said the government will try its best to ensure that the upcoming meeting of

the syndicate of the NED University takes the decision to upgrade the posts of

the non-teaching staff of the varsity.

Regarding the allegation that affairs of the universities have not been managed well since the time the provincial chief executive has assumed their controlling authority, Khuhro said the bill passed recently by the legislature to give such powers to the CM is awaiting the assent of the governor and is yet to become law.

Devolution demanded

Sindh Sports Minister Sardar Bux Khan Mahar demanded that the federal government devolve the control of the National Coaching Centre in Karachi to the provincial government in line with the 18th constitutional amendment.

He made this demand in the House while responding to oral and written queries of the relevant lawmakers during the question hour of the House pertaining to sports department.

Mahar said the Sindh government seeks the management and control of the National Coaching Centre because it is an important sporting asset of the province.

He said the sporting facilities at the National Coaching Centre are not at a par with the international standards, as the events of the recent Sindh Sports Games could not be properly held there, and the management of the games had to face embarrassing situations on certain occasions owing to a lack of due facilities.