Sindh wants petrol price fixed at Rs40 per litre

PA unanimously passes resolution describing Rs5/litre decrease in POL prices announced by Centre as not in line with oil price drop in international market

Karachi

The Sindh Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Monday condemning the “callous and inept” federal government for not reducing petroleum prices in line with the decreasing global oil rates and demanded that the price of petrol should be lowered by Rs36 per litre instead of Rs5 announced a day earlier.

Parliamentary affairs and education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro presented the resolution, wherein it was demanded that the federal government should fix the price of petrol at Rs40 per litre as the reduction announced by the government was not enough compared with the prevailing low oil prices in the international market and not transferring the actual benefits to the citizens.

On Sunday, the federal government notified a Rs5 decrease in petroleum prices, fixing the rate of petrol at Rs71.25 from Rs76.25.

The lawmakers of all parties in the legislature supported the passage of the resolution – even those belonging to the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz despite the fact their party is in power in the Centre.

Environment and coastal development minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro was the co-mover of the resolution. Khuhro said the lawmakers of other political parties were also its co-signatories.

Khuhro requested speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani to take up the resolution on an urgent basis during the session as its adoption would help in sending an emphatic and unanimous message of the people of Sindh to the Centre that they were not satisfied with the reduction in petroleum prices.

He said the price of oil in the international market had decreased to a record low - from $120 per barrel to $35.

Another resolution on the same issue presented by opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Muhammad Hussain Khan and co-signed by several lawmakers of his party was also clubbed together with the one moved by Khuhro for its unanimous passage by the House.

The resolution presented by Khuhro read: “This Assembly condemns the callous and inept attitude of the federal government of not transferring the real benefits of the decreasing international petroleum prices to its citizens. The House recommends to the provincial government to approach federal government for fixing the prices of petrol at rs 40/litre and proportionally reduce the prices of all other petroleum products.”

KU security discussed

Earlier while responding to a call-attention notice of MQM lawmaker Muhammad Kamran Akhtar, Khuhro informed the House that the administration of the University of Karachi had been released a grant of Rs30 million for beefing up security arrangements at its campus.

He added that the university’s campus was spread over 1,300 acres area and accommodating around 40,000 students; faculty members; 56 teaching departments; and research institutes and centres required special security arrangements.

The minister said for this purpose, the boundary wall surrounding the campus had been repaired at several points and its height increased from a minimum of seven-and-a-half feet to a maximum of nine feet.

He said the university’s administration had hired the services of additional 20 security guards, installed walk-through security gates and CCTV cameras, and metallic detectors and was improving its procedure for monitoring visitors.

Khuhro said the university had recently announced a vacancy to hire a retired
army officer as its chief security officer, a post currently being served by a faculty member. 

The minister said the university’s administration was preparing the PC-1 of a Rs200 million project to increase security arrangements at the campus.

Speaking on her call-attention notice, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi complained that 24,000 patients registered with the Sindh government’s hepatitis-control programme were suffering because of the delay in the provision of medicines and treatment.

She added that the total number of patients in the province suffering from hepatitis stood at around 188,000.

Health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said earlier the provision of medicines to hepatitis patients was delayed over litigation of a related case but now efforts were being made to deliver them regulaly.

Agriculture research

Agriculture minister Ali Nawz Khan Mahar informed the House during the question hour that no foreigner was working at federally-run agricultural research centres and institutes in Sindh over security concerns.

These research centres include the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, and the Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board.

To an opposition lawmaker’s question, the minister conceded that the provincial government had not been devolved all the powers related to the agriculture sector including fixing the prices of crops even though the subject been completely devolved from the Centre to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

MQM parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed said all quarters concerned should collectively make efforts so that the provincial government was handed over all powers related to the agriculture sector. 

Marriage hall staff

In the wake of the discovery of a child’s body in the water tank of a wedding hall in Orangi Town a day earlier, the MPA of the area, MQM’s Saifuddin Khalid, demanded that police should conduct registration and verification of employees working at wedding halls in the city.

Home minister Sohail Anwar Siyal informed the House that police had lodged an FIR and arrested eight people including the wedding hall’s staff in connection with the case.

Parliamentary delegation

A 20-member parliamentary delegation comprising a select group of lawmakers of the provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan visited the Sindh Assembly when the session was in progress.

The visit was organized by Democracy Reporting International, a global non-governmental organisation.

The speaker, opposition leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan and parliamentary leaders of other parties welcomed the delegation.

Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah described such visits as a healthy sign for the promotion of relations between representatives of different political parties for the cause of strengthening democracy.

Later, the speaker hosted a lunch for the visiting delegation. The preparation for their lunch, especially the cooking of barbecue dishes, filled the assembly hall with smoke while the session was in progress. PML-F MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi expressed concern over the smoke saying that a fire might have erupted in the building. The speaker, however, told her that the smoke was caused by the cooking of barbecue dishes.