Presiding over a preparatory meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) held in Islamabad on Thursday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that he would support a population and housing census.
The chief minister was informed that as per the orders of the Supreme Court, the 6th population and housing census will begin on March 15th and is expected to be completed in two months.
The field operation will be carried out in two phases and each phase will start simultaneously in each province. Phase –II will start 10 days after the completion of the first phase. Two blocks will be covered by one enumerator in each phase and one soldier will accompany each enumerator. The enumerators and supervisors will be from the education, local government, and revenue departments.
The deployment scheme of staff has been finalised. Training programmes for field staff have been started while the appointment of field staff is in progress.
The population & housing census is one of the agendas of the CCI meeting. The chief minister said that he would extend his full for the purpose.
Some 27905 staff members, including 19317 enumerators, 19317 enumerators, 5120 supervisors and 931 superintendents are expected to conduct the census. The chief minister was also briefed that there would be 931 census charges, 5120 circles, 38634 blocks and 44685 census areas in Sindh.
Other agendas of the meeting include higher education, formulation of a national flood protection plan, import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), allocation of the national security fund, FATA reforms programme, national forest policy, and transfer of the national regulatory authority (NEPRA) from the cabinet division to the line ministry.
Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government has drafted two laws and two legislations. The first legislation is aimed at the devolution of HEC and the other for the establishment of a commission for standards in higher education. He added that he has sent the legislation draft to other provinces for their comments.
He also pointed out that the federal high education commission has a huge budget which it gives directly to universities. Instead, the federal HEC should give funds to universities through provincial universities & boards departments.
Talking about the formulation of the National Flood Protection Plan-IV (2015-25), he said that the provincial governments were enough competent to make their own plans and that the federal government should finance them.
“This was the resolution passed by the national assembly and it should be implemented accordingly,” he said. However, he said that he would support the federal plan if suggestions of the provincial governments are incorporated.
Regarding the National Forest Policy, the CM was of the view that it was a provincial matter having nothing to do with the centre.
“However, if the federal government wants to set targets, the Sindh government will welcome them,” he added.
Murad Ali Shah expressed his disapproval of the proposal to transfer NEPRA from the cabinet division to the line minister. “NEPRA must remain independent because it is a regulatory body and it must be independent in making its decisions. If it is given to any line ministry, all its regulations and decisions would be influenced by that ministry,” he said.
