PA resolution opposes action against SBCA employees

The Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution against the dismissal of some 1,145 employees of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) posted all over the province.

Both the treasury and opposition lawmakers in the house supported the passage of the resolution, which was moved by an MPA of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Dr Bahadur Khan Dahri.

PPP MPA Mir Nadir Ali Khan Magsi had initially raised the issue in the house. The lawmaker drew the attention of the chair towards the protest being held by the dismissed staffers of the SBCA outside the assembly building against inquiries that been held against them. “Are we supposed to snatch away employment of people towards the end of the tenure of this government,” Magsi questioned.

PPP’s Ghulam Qadir Chandio said that employees of the SBCA had been penalised for being Sindhi-speaking natives of the province. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that more than 1,100 employees had been recruited to the SBCA after the fulfilment of all the legal formalities and later in 2014 the government had regularised their service. But, now it has been learnt that the process had been initiated to dismiss these employees after conducting an inquiry. He said a ministerial committee should be constituted to look into the complaints, if any, regarding educational qualifications of the concerned employees of SBCA who are under scrutiny.

Khuhro said that the people who had been recruited in accordance with the rules and regulations should not be left jobless. “The government should look into the act of the local government secretary in this regard as we are against rendering people jobless,” said Khuhro.

The minister added that a joint resolution should be moved in the house against the dismissal of these employees as such a resolution would send a clear-cut message to the relevant quarters that no attempt should be made to snatch away the jobs of poor people.

Opposition MPA of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Faisal Ali Subzwari said it seemed that the local government secretary himself had run away after issuing an erroneous executive order. Leader of Opposition Khawaja Izharul Hassan said they would not let anyone be left jobless without any legal basis.

PPP MPA Naeem Ahmed Kharal addressed Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and told him that the said SBCA employees had been appointed during his tenure. He was referring to the speaker’s time as the local government minister during PPP’s last government in the province.

Speaker Durrani responded that during his tenure as the provincial minister, nobody had the courage to issue such an order for dismissal from service of the staffers of any local government agency. “We will see to the Sindh local government secretary,” he said.

Durrani said that although he would not support anyone possessing a fake degree, no one had the authority to dismiss employees who had been recruited on merit. He added employment had been given on merit to the protesting SBCA employees and now they were being subjected to injustice.

Separately, PPP MPA Ali Nawaz Shah disclosed that he didn’t take any salary or privilege during his five-year stint as a member of the house. The senior lawmaker of the ruling party said that he didn’t deserve any salary or privilege as his presence and performance in the assembly had remained unsatisfactory owing to certain reasons, including his unstable health condition.

Jobs given on quota

Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, while chairing the session, exchanged harsh words with Opposition MPA of MQM Kamran Akhtar as the latter through his call to attention notice wanted to know the number of people who were employed by the present provincial government in public sector jobs on the basis of quota system, especially those who were employed on the basis of quota reserved for urban parts of the province.

The opposition lawmaker alleged that though thousands of jobs had been given by the outgoing PPP’s Sindh government, they had been offered in negation to the concept and principle of merit.

Akhtar claimed that people had been recruited by the provincial government on the basis of bogus certificates of domiciles. He said an unjust quota system was being used to do an “economic massacre” of the highly-qualified youth in the province.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro said that the question of the opposition lawmaker pertained to employments made under the quota system only by Sindh Government Department Services, General Administration and Coordination as the response to the query of Opposition lawmaker was being given. He said the department concerned had employed 69 people under the quota system over the course of one year.

Missing persons

Meanwhile, Home Minister Sohail Anwar Khan Siyal assured the house that police and other relevant institutions had been working to recover missing persons in the province.

He said that the provincial government had been working to ensure recovery of the missing persons as an inquiry committee had been constituted for the purpose, while some cases were being heard by the Sindh High Court as well.

According to the home minister, he had met the aggrieved families of the missing persons to convey assurances to them in this regard.

Siyal gave these assurances in response to the call to attention notice by MPA of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional Nusrat Seher Abbasi about the government’s efforts to recover missing persons whose families recently staged a protest and hunger-strike camp outside the Karachi Press Club.

Laws passed

Moreover, the provincial assembly once again passed into law the Sindh Regularization of Doctors Appointed on Contract or Adhoc Basis Bill-2018 as the governor had earlier returned the bill to the assembly without giving his assent.

The bill seeks the regularisation of some 400 doctors working on contract/ad-hoc basis associated with government health institutions mainly in Tharparkar and other districts. The house also unanimously passed the Sindh Institute of Traumatology, Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Bill-2017 and Sindh Hindu Marriages (Amendment) Bill.

Brief discussions were also held on adjournment motions moved by opposition MPA of PTI Khurrum Sher Zaman on the issue of load-shedding in Karachi and MPA of MQM Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani on the issue of 50 per cent shortage of irrigation water in Sindh in the current season of cultivation.