- Khoro opposes motion demanding debate on over 100,000 ghost employees in education department
The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed two private resolutions, rejected two others, and deferred another.
As per the details, the Sindh Assembly initiated the session, under Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, 36 minutes later than its scheduled time of 10am. Only nine members were present, however, the speaker ignored the quorum.
The session was for private members. During the question answer hour, four of the give questions on the agenda were tackled, and another 24 supplementary questions were raised.
MQM lawmaker Muhammad Hussain Khan raised the motion for adjournment over the fact that Secretary Education Dr Fazlullah Pencho himself has admitted that over 100,000 ghost employees were eating up billions of rupees allocated for education in Sindh every year. He said that the presence of 100,000 ghost employees was in just one department, and its confirmation by a secretary level officer is a very serious and urgent matter, and needs to be discussed in the House.
However, Sindh Education Minister Nisar Khuhro opposed the motion and said that the statement made by the secretary education was not recent. He said the motion was not maintainable under the rulers. The speaker rejected the adjournment motion for this reason.
The House also rejected a private motion from the Leader of Opposition Shaharyar Khan Mahar (PML-F) where he said that as per the spirit of the charter of democracy signed by PPP Leader Benazir Bhutto the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in Sindh Assembly should be appointed by the Leader of the Opposition.
He said that PPP members were only paying lip service to Benazir Bhutto, and were not ready to accept her vision about democracy in Pakistan, which is outlined in the Charter of Democracy. He invited PPP members to reject his resolution to vindicate his claim that the PPP members were not following the vision of their leader Benazir Bhutto. However, senior minister opposed the resolution and the PPP lawmakers said ‘No’ to it when it was presented to the House for approval. Hence the motion of Muhammad Shaharyar Khan Mahar regarding the empowerment of the leader of opposition to appoint the chairperson of public accounts committee was rejected.
Similarly, the House also rejected a private motion from Nusrat Bano Seher Abbasi of PML-F, demanding the promotions of doctors who have been waiting for their due promotions for years.
The House also passed a resolution presented by Nand Kumar regarding the implementation of the five per cent quota for minorities in government jobs. It also passed a resolution presented by MQM’s Khalid Ahmed regarding the issue of ensuring supply of 650-megawatt electricity to Karachi-Electric (KE) from the National Grid, irrespective of past agreement, which expired last month.
The private resolution of PML-F’s Saeed Khan Nizamani regarding the release of salaries of Hur Mujadis posted in the police force was deferred by the House to the next day.
Private Bill No 10/2014, The Sindh Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 tabled by Khalid Ahmed from MQM was introduced.
MQM lawmaker Adnan Ahmed raised the issue of the cracker attack on a private school in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, and the education minister assured that security issues faced by schools would be resolved.
A privilege motion by PML-N’s Arbab Ghulam Rahim was on the agenda but the mover was absent.
Later, the speaker adjourned the House until Friday at 10am.