Tag: Sindh

KARACHI - An anti-corruption court sentenced a Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) member and two others to four years in prison on Saturday on corruption charges. Judge Rashida Asad of the special anti-corruption court sentenced SPSC member Ramesh Udeshi as well as Rehana Minaj and Shahid Ahmed Khan to two years imprisonment in two separate offences.
The court also directed all the accused to pay Rs 50,000 each as fine, and failing to pay the same would result in additional

KARACHI: A series of small bomb blasts on upcountry railway tracks in different places in Sindh disrupted train services from Karachi to other parts of the country on Friday morning.
Six low-intensity blasts in Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Ghotki and Panu Aqil damaged the tracks and brought train services to a complete halt for many hours. The train services were restored on Friday evening after railway engineers finished repairs.
Pakistan Railways officials said that

KARACHI - The Sindh government has refused to issue weapons licences to private schools in the metropolis. After the twin blasts at the Islamic University in Islamabad, the Sindh home secretary had agreed with management representatives of private schools that the institutions would be allowed to keep licensed arms for ensuring safety of students and staff and take strict security measures on their own.
However, the plan of the Sindh Home Department was recently dropped due to

KARACHI - After much lobbying and swaying opinions through the media, officials of the Sindh Health Department on Thursday managed to get the provincial government to extend the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme for another three years - a project that will cost Rs 5 billion.
The last three-year term, worth Rs.2.70 billion, was set to expire soon, and the Health Department had recently started hepatitis screening of different areas to prove the efficiency of the

KARACHI - The Sindh government has requested the centre for representation in the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) Board of Directors (BoD) to ensure better service for the consumers and protection of their rights, Sindh Electric Power Minister Shazia Marri said on Thursday.
While talking to a group of media personnel and various delegations visiting her office regarding their problems, Marri said that the Electric Inspectorate working under the Power Department is being

KARACHI - After much lobbying and swaying opinions through the media, officials of the Sindh Health Department on Thursday managed to get the provincial government to extend the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme for another three years - a project that will cost Rs 5 billion.
The last three-year term, worth Rs.2.70 billion, was set to expire soon, and the Health Department had recently started hepatitis screening of different areas to prove the efficiency of the

KARACHI - For the first time Sindh government has imposed tax on the goods to be traded under the recently signed Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, it has been reliably learnt. The new levy will be collected at the rate of 0.5 percent of the value of the consignment as the Infrastructure Cess, to be charged on the export/imports of PATTA goods from Karachi by air or by sea, well-placed sources told Pakistan Today.
Previously, the consignment of goods traded under the Pak-Afghan

KARACHI - The Sindh government has decided to restructure its current 44 departments into 20 for curtailing the huge expenditures incurred on the large number of provincial ministers. The decision has been made after the federal government recently decided to cut down on the number of ministers.
The ruling PPP has started contacting its coalition parties including the MQM, the ANP, the PML-F and other political forces in this regard and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has instructed

The Sindh Bank Ltd, sponsored by the provincial government, has commenced operations, opening its first branch on December 27, 2010. It would have been better, however, if Government of Sindh had looked at the history of public sector financial institutions in the country, before arriving to a decision. A summarised report on how such organisations have fared is illustrative of the likely trajectory of the corporation.
Till 1973, Pakistan possessed a vibrant banking sector. Then

KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, presided over the third meeting of Sindh Board of Investment (SBI), an official statement notified. Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister stressed the need to extend incentives and facilities to attract the greatest number of investors to invest in various projects in Sindh province.
He said that there is vast scope for investment in various sectors particularly in coal mining, power generation, wind energy, trade

KARACHI - The hidden realities behind incidents of targeted killing in Karachi must be exposed, Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad said on Tuesday. "After creating a situation in the metropolis that is similar to the Malakand-Swat situation, extremists now want to destabilise the city as well as the country," the governor told a delegation of Kashmiri journalists at the Governor's House.
He said that the worsening law and order situation in the city could be solved only after exposing

KARACHI - Sindh Chief Secretary Ghulam Ali Shah Pasha assured the Sindh Education Sector Reform Programme (SERP) Joint Review Mission of World Bank on Monday that the Sindh government would achieve its targets during the third year of the SERP.
"But there are certain challenges that the Sindh government confronts due to the recent floods," he said during a meeting with the SERP Joint Review Mission at the Sindh Secretariat. Pasha briefed the Mission about the progress of the

KARACHI - Over 1700 police personnel and officers were illegally promoted during the last 15 years in violation of all rules and regulations. Sources said that a severe divide exists within the Sindh police because these illegal promotions have allowed some officers to monopolize the institution.
On the other hand, many officers despite serving 25 years in the police are working as junior officers under the officer appointed in the last decade. Many officers and personnel got

KARACHI - Members of the Sindh cabinet approved a bill on Saturday drafted by Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza for providing protection to witnesses in cases filed by the prosecution at the courts.
Briefing media persons about the cabinet members' decisions, Chief Minister's Adviser on Information Sharmila Farooqui said that the bill would be presented at the Sindh Assembly for necessary legislation. "Despite the police arresting suspects in several criminal cases, especially

ISLAMABAD - Six months after the 2010 monsoon floods hit large parts of Pakistan, the humanitarian aid agents face another huge challenge following new survey results from Sindh province that reveal critical levels of malnutrition among flood-affected children.
The data released by the Sindh Department of Health on Friday indicate a nutrition crisis, recording a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 23.1 per cent in children aged between 6-59 months in flood-affected areas of

KARACHI - Despite Zakat and Ushr having been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the federal government has refused to transfer at least Rs6.5 billion to the provinces, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources told Pakistan Today that the funds are currently available with the Ministry of Finance, but the federal authorities have turned down all efforts by the provinces on the pretexts of economic crisis and shortage of funds. Of the funds, Sindh stands

KARACHI - The Sindh government on Tuesday decided that it would not give up its constitutional right to collect GST on all services related to the province. The decision was taken at a meeting presided by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at the Chief Minister's House.
Sindh Chief Secretary Ghulam Ali Shah Pasha, Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Development) Ishaq Lashari, Finance Secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon, Sindh Revenue Board Chairman Nazar Hussain Maher,