Sindh looking to replace 61 federal laws

Karachi
The departments of the Sindh government are working tirelessly to replace 61 federal laws with provincial ones so that certain functions of the federal ministries devolved under 18th Constitutional Amendment could be carried out by the provincial authorities, the chief minister said on Monday.
Qaim Ali Shah was speaking while presiding over a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday.
Provincial adviser on zakat Dost Mohammad Rahimoon told the participants of the meeting that his department had already prepared the necessary legislation in this connection.
"Now a board of trustees will be formed to implement the zakat bill,” he added.
“I have already met the Sindh Revenue Board that been assigned the task of zakat collection.”
The adviser said zakat collection in the month of Ramazan would be around Rs3 billion. “We will increase it further and utilise that money amount to help the poor.”
The chief secretary told the chief minister that the legislation for the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution had been prepared and was being implemented. "Presently, we are working on the structure of the EOBI and the labour department is preparing proposals for this purpose,” he added.
Labour secretary Rasheed Solangi said the legislation for the Workers Welfare Fund had been completed too.
He added that the department would issue a notification for the board of Workers Welfare Fund within a week. “The recovery of the Workers Welfare Fund may go up to Rs3 billion.”
The federal laws to be replaced with provincial ones include those related to travel agencies, hotels and restaurants, tourists guides, wildlife protection, compulsory education, the food authority, pure food, mother languages as a compulsory additional subject at primary level, preventing domestic violence, environmental protection, historical mosques and shrine fund cess, promoting breast-feeding and child nutrition, medical aid for injured people, industrial relations, culture and heritage preservation, archives, antiquities, borstal institution, the printing and recording of the Holy Quran, vaccination, child welfare and protection, protection against harassment at workplaces, senior citizens welfare bill, supervision of curriculum textbooks and maintenance of educational standard, child marriage prohibition, agricultural pesticides, seeds and plant breeders rights.
The chief minister directed the chief secretary and the law department to expedite the preparation of the laws so that the functions of devolved departments could be taken over.
Ban imposed
The Sindh Home Department has imposed, with immediate effect, a 90-day ban on display of weapons, guards except law enforcement agencies (LEAs) dressed in civil clothes or guards wearing uniforms resembling those of any of the law enforcement departments; private vehicles resembling those used by the LEAs, or having installed mounted police lights, police siren and hooters were also banned.
Private vehicles were also prohibited to put tints on car windows, install unauthorised blue lights or fancy number plates.
The ban was imposed under section 144 of the criminal procedure code.
The provincial government had only this year imposed a ban on display of weapons on April 18, in May besides on other occasions.