The Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed the Karachi School of Business and Leadership Institute Bill 2012 into law to enhance educational facilities in the province.
Also, in the house two other bills were also introduced but their consideration was deferred to next sittings as the members wanted to debate the same thoroughly before enacting them into law.
Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro tabled the Karachi School of Business and Leadership Institute Bill 2012 as soon as the Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza called for order in the house. After a brief discussion, the house adopted the bill with a unanimous vote.
“With a view to enhance the educational facilities and encourage the participation of private sector in education, an institute that will be called the Karachi School of Business and Leadership Institute is being established at Karachi, therefore, it is expedient to enact a law in this regard,” read the bill’s statement of object.
The first of the two bills deferred was the Sindh Protection of Breast-Feeding and Child Nutrition Bill 2013. It was deferred when the lawmakers sought more time to review the provisions of the proposed law by saying that they might also be presenting their recommendations.
The house, through passing a motion, referred the bill to the standing committee concerned. The lawmakers said the committee should accommodate their recommendations on the bill within a week and ensure that it could be presented on next Wednesday (February 13th). Meanwhile, the second bill was delayed for consideration till next Monday.
Ayaz, who tabled the bills, pleaded to the chair to defer their considerations for next dates. Sindh Finance Advisor Murad Ali Shah, however, termed the deferment of bills after introduction as illegal.
Shah suggested that the house should allow the transfer of these bills to the committees concerned for review and then bring them back for legislations in future sittings of the assembly.
Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) lawmaker Munawar Ali Abbasi, Sussui Palejo, Ayaz and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Syed Sardar Ahmed had sought deferment of the bills.
Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) legislator Jam Madad Ali at the end of the session rose on a point of order, asking the chair’s permission for considering the passage of a resolution the opposition had earlier moved in the provincial assembly on March 15th. He said the resolution was pertaining to the protection of Sindh’s geographical boundaries. He also said that at that time, senior Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq was head of the special committee to which the resolution had been referred to deal with. The deputy speaker told Jam Madad that Mazhar had undergone a surgery and would be here in the next sessions to update the house on the fate of the resolution.
The legislator contended that Mazhar had resigned from the committee and therefore it was irrelevant to do the same. He said if Mazhar was not available, Ayaz could head the committee.On this, deputy speaker Shehla said that the resignation of Pir Mazhar had not been accepted yet. Ayaz, however, said that Mazhar would return to the house in the next session.
The other issue, Jam Madad raised was a clarification on Rafiq Engineer’s allegations that the PML-F’s leader, namely Imtiaz Shaikh, had not returned his official vehicles to the department to which he was appointed as advisor.
He said Imtiaz had returned the vehicles to the department concerned, which the government had allotted him. He showed documents in the house to prove his stance on the issue.However, Rafiq Engineer again alleged that Imtiaz still possessed the vehicles and if he did not return them to the government, the ministry concerned would lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against him to recover the official vehicles from him.
The debate between Jam Madad and Rafiq Engineer was just beginning to escalate when the deputy speaker abruptly adjourned the house till Monday morning.
