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Tuesday March 19, 2024

PA demands ownership rights for residents of federal quarters in city

By Azeem Samar
November 16, 2018

The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution demanding that occupants of the federal government’s residential quarters in Karachi be immediately granted ownership rights.

The resolution was presented by PA opposition leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan of the MQM-Pakistan in the previous sitting of the House. It also condemned last month’s police action that aimed at evicting the residents of Pakistan Quarters.

Signed by lawmakers of both treasury and opposition, the resolution demands that the Sindh government ask the Centre to grant ownership rights to the residents of Martin Quarters, Pakistan Quarters, Federal Capital Quarters and Clayton Quarters on Karachi’s Jahangir Road.

These quarters were provided to the people by the country’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, in view of their services after the creation of Pakistan, so their families should be granted ownership rights, stated the resolution.

MPA Hassan said people have been living in these quarters for four consecutive generations and should not be evicted from their homes. He condemned the registration of cases against the resident for resisting their eviction.

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said the provincial administration supports the resolution because the issue of the residents of the federal quarters in the city needs to be resolved on humanitarian grounds.

Benazir Bhutto

The House also unanimously passed a resolution of PPP legislator Marvi Faseeh Rashdi against the Centre’s attempts to remove Benazir Bhutto’s picture from the official logo of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) as well as renaming of the Islamabad airport.

Expressing her support for the resolution, Women Development Minister Shehla Raza said: “I don’t know what message we’re trying to give to the outside world by removing the names of our heroes from our projects.”

PTI lawmaker Khurrum Sher Zaman said Benazir was a major political leader but the PPP should move out of the shadow of such political slogans and pictures of their leaders.

He claimed that the BISP is being run on a political basis to financially benefit a few. “Tomorrow they could demand that the picture of [Asif Ali] Zardari sahib could be printed on [currency] notes; such a thing could not happen.”

However, when the speaker later put the resolution to vote in the House, nobody opposed it from the opposition benches, so it was passed unanimously.

Markets’ issue

Speaking on a point of order, Zaman said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has issued notices for rescinding the registrations of five markets in the city that were legally set up, and would affect some 150,000 people. Ghani said he would respond in the PA after he has proper information on the issue.

Public schools

Responding to a calling-attention notice of GDA lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, Education Minister Sardar Ali Shah informed the House that the biometric system for verifying the attendance record of teachers of public schools is being expanded to all the districts of the province.

Nusrat had said in her notice that although the biometric system is a good mechanism to verify attendance, teachers of public schools in remote districts had to travel up to Karachi to take part in the system.

Meanwhile, the ‘Sindh Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Book Registration Act 2017’ was introduced in the provincial legislature by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla.

Culture festival

Shah, who also holds the culture portfolio, distanced himself from the Sindh Culture Festival held in the previous provincial government’s tenure some four years ago, saying he had no knowledge about the activities that had taken place during the event. The culture festival, which had become controversial due to the last provincial administration’s extravagance in organising it, was discussed during the question hour in the PA.

GDA legislator Nand Kumar Goklani said that millions of rupees were squandered to organise a conference at Mohenjodaro, adding that the event featured only “singing and dancing”. He said that the huge sum could have been spent on building several tourist resorts and motels in the province.

Gorakh Hill

MQM-P lawmaker Mangla Sharma asked about the status of the tourist resort being built at the Gorakh Hill Station. Shah told her that he does not know anything about it because an MNA of the PPP chairs the Gorakh Hill Development Authority.

Frere Hall

Shah advised the opposition to present a resolution so that the administrative control of Karachi’s Frere Hall can be transferred from the KMC to the Sindh government, as frequent commercial activities at the protected heritage site have ruined it. He claimed he can name over 10 such places that have been ruined by the city mayor.

PA passes cancelled

The PA speaker has cancelled the passes issued to visitors to the assembly building for witnessing the session of the House. This cancellation does not affect the press and officers’ galleries of the assembly hall.

The passes have been cancelled for the speaker’s gallery, the women’s visitor’s gallery, the governor’s gallery, the general visitors’ gallery. The delegation and diplomatic passes have also been cancelled.

The cancellation of the passes for visitors to the assembly building will take effect from Friday (today) due to security reasons and will remain in effect until further orders.