• Approves just Rs357m for paramilitary force in view of financial crunch
• Repair of 9,900 school buildings ordered, where polling stations are to be set up for 2024 elections

KARACHI: While the home department sought around Rs2 billion for Rangers for procurement of water cannon, vehicles and communication equipment, the Sindh cabinet on Friday approved Rs357 million for strengthening the operational capacity of the paramilitary force deployed since 1989 in the province.

The decision was taken by the provincial cabinet in its meeting, chaired by caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar, held at CM House.

Sources said that the provincial home department presented a proposal before the cabinet that the paramilitary force sought anti-riot gear as they also assisted the Sindh police in crowd management.

The sources said that the Rangers had requested for over Rs2bn for procurement of water cannon, vehicles for its quick response force and reliable communication equipment.

They said that the operational capacity of the Rangers was also needed to be enhanced in view of the upcoming general elections.

The sources said that the cabinet held deliberations on the issue and decided not to approve the desired funds in view of a serious financial crunch.

However, the cabinet allocated an amount of Rs357m for the purpose, said a spokesperson for the CM House.

The Rangers, which is a federal force, had been deployed in Karachi since 1989 when it was called under Article 147 of the Constitution to assist the police. Later, the Rangers were given special policing powers within Karachi division and now they are authorised to conduct raids and arrests suspects.

The cabinet was told that the federal government had claimed liabilities relating to the deployment of Frontier Constabulary in Sindh from 2005 to 2008 in aid to civil administration for maintenance of law and order.

The amount claimed by the federal government includes Rs149.56m pay and Rs77.34m allowances for internal security duty. The total amount comes to Rs226.9m.

The cabinet approved the amount to clear the liability.

Repair of 9,900 school buildings

The cabinet approved Rs3.3bn for the repair of around 9,900 school buildings to be used as polling stations during the Feb 8, 2024 general elections in the province.

The cabinet was informed by the school education department that the deputy commissioners and executive engineers of the districts concerned conducted the identification of schools to be used as polling stations for the provision of missing facilities.

It was informed that as many as 9,901 schools, including 1,015 in Karachi, 4,520 in Hyderabad and 4,366 in Sukkur needed to be repaired along with provision of missing facilities.

The budget proposed for repairing and maintaining 9,901 schools had been worked out at Rs3.3bn.

The cabinet approved the proposal.

Meanwhile, the sources said that the education department was not capable to carry out the repair and maintenance of that big number of schools before the upcoming elections keeping in view its track record as no scheme of the education department had ever been completed in the stipulated time.

Besides, they said that the advice for the release of funds by the finance department would take 10 to 12 days and the amount would be transferred to the education department in at least 15 days.

Then, the sources said that the tendering process of the repair works would start and it would also take some time, leaving little time to complete the task before the general elections, as no exemption of procurement rules was approved by the cabinet.

1,046 posts of ASIs

The home department informed the cabinet that the police department had sent a requisition for general recruitment against 1,046 posts of assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

The cabinet in its meeting in May 2001 had decided ‘intermediate’ as the basic educational qualification for recruitment to the post of ASIs and since then the recruitment to the post of ASI had been carried out on the intermediate basis.

It was pointed out that under the Sindh Police (Shaheed, Deceased, permanently invalidated or incapacitated quota) Recruitment Rules 2021, the requisite qualification for the post of ASIs was graduation.

The cabinet fixed the standard of qualification for ASI as ‘graduation’ and their recruitment would be made through SPSC.

The caretaker cabinet was told that the Larkana Development Authority was dissolved in October.

It decided that the employees of the defunct LDA would be sent to a surplus pool being created in the local government department, which would absorb them in its different wings when and if any post(s) fell vacant, preferably in their parent district.

On the request of the health department, the cabinet approved the allotment of three acres in Deh Nando Kohistan of district Sukkur free of cost.

The health department would establish a satellite centre of the Sindh Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation on the land.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2023