KARACHI, Feb 4: Sindh Health Minister Saghir Ahmad on Wednesday said that the government had taken necessary steps to ensure the availability of medicines, including life-saving drugs, in government hospitals.
He admitted procurement of medicines by hospitals on different rates in different districts because of price variations from one district to another. But now the chief minister had approved the summary of a rate contract system on the basis of which medicines of only one company would be made available in all public hospitals in the 23 districts of the province.
He said the health department had recommended the constitution of an advisory board for ensuring transparency on prices of medicines.
However, as for life-saving drugs, they were made available in all hospitals but if at certain places there was any shortage, it should be pointed out to the department for remedial action.
The health minister made this statement on the floor of the house in response to a point of order raised by Shama Mithani, complaining that life-saving drugs, which were displayed in hospitals were not available there while their prices were set beyond the common man’s reach.
She proposed the constitution of medical boards for ensuring price control and availability of medicines.
Imdad Ali Pitafi said the medicines being supplied to government hospitals were three times more expensive than the market rates. A medicine which was available in the market for Rs30, for instance, was supplied to government hospital at Rs100.
Food Minister Nadir Magsi responding to Munawwar Ali Abbasi’s point of order said the wheat supplied to Sindh was of low quality and unfit for consumption. However, he said, in the five districts bordering Punjab from where Punjab used to purchase early wheat crop, the Sindh government had now taken the necessary measures to procure even the early wheat crop at the government rate to keep wheat in Sindh to meet its requirement.
He said that he had a meeting with the chief minister in this regard and decided to set up procurement centres in March, and bardana was also being arranged.
Mr Abbasi in his point of order drew the attention of the house to media reports that in the province wheat stocks had dwindled to such extent that they were hardly enough to meet 15 days requirement, and the Punjab government was not ready to sell wheat to meet Sindh’s requirement.
He suggested that steps be taken so that early wheat crop, which Punjab used to buy, remained in the province to avert a wheat flour crisis.
The white Corolla syndrome
Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza responding to a point of order raised by Nusrat Abbasi assured the house, and the people of Sindh in particular, that the government was serious in taking action against criminals. The government had caught “the white Corolla” which was involved in snatching purses and jewellery from women and was also involved in gang-rapes in Clifton and Defence and had become a mystery for the last three months.
However, he criticised the educated women, including parliamentarians, who had staged a protest rally on Tuesday at the Karachi press club and gave TV interviews demanding that the suspects be stoned to death.
He said one of the women asked him that instead of taking care of her, first he should shoot the suspects.
The minister pointed out that the days of extrajudicial killings were over as a suspect had every right to defend himself in court.
Dr Mirza said as the suspect was caught red-handed, the government would make the prosecution case strong. However, he asked the victims to come forward and testify in court. People should come forward and help the government strengthen the rule of law. He promised that the government would not tolerate crimes against women, who had the status of mother, sister and daughter, and the government would make all-out efforts to see justice done.
Nusrat Abbasi through her point of order drew the house’s attention to gang-rape victims who could not pursue their cases because of fear. In this connection, she referred to the case of a woman who was allegedly gang-raped and two suspects in the case were arrested, but others were roaming free and even an FIR was not registered against them.
She said even if the suspects were arrested, they would escape conviction anyhow.
She said the arrest of the suspects who indulged in snatching jewellery and purses and committed rape in Clifton and Defence for the last eight to nine months, was a good step of the government, which should also ensure that they were convicted and punished.
Minister for Women Affairs Fatima Bhutto said the government had also arrested suspects wanted in other gang-rape cases, but did not make it public because the victims did not like to be mentioned in the media. She assured the house that the government was taking all necessary measures to bring to book all criminals.
Information Minister Shazia Marri made a statement about the Seventh Wage Award for journalists in which she pointed out that Prime Minister Gilani had set up a special tripartite committee, comprising APNS President Hameed Haroon and the government and PFUJ representatives, whose terms of reference were to submit their recommendations regarding the implementation of the award by Feb 15.
Fisheries Minister Zahid Bhurgari, responding to a point of order raised by Nuzhat Pathan, informed the house that the chief minister had approved a package of Rs1 billion for laying drainage in Qasimabad.
Dangerous buildings
Nuzaht Pathan, besides emphasising the need for a drainage system in Qasimabad, also drew the attention of the house to Wadhua locality, which was affected by salinity and where only ground-plus-two stories were allowed, but now the Hyderabad Development Authority was giving permission for ground-plus-eight stories to builders, which amounted to playing with people’s lives.
Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani recalled the case of the collapse of a building in Sukkur, where the builder was prosecuted and the affected families were paid Rs3 million each by the builder.
He asked the members to give him details of the ground-plus-eight storey building which was planned in the salinity-affected locality for verification and necessary action.
He also announced that instead of the Sindh Building Control Authority, the government had decided to amend the law for setting up a district building control authority in every district.
Jam Tamachi, through his point of order, drew the attention of the house to inflated Wapda bills to the Sindh government and asked for its justification.
Mr Sodho from Tharprker referred to the draught in Tharparker last August for want of rain and said the government had so far not announced any relief for the people.
Bachal Shah referred to the problem of shortage of fertilisers which had resulted in its black-marketing.
Farheen Mughal said that like the Pakistan Engineering Council, which gave registration to engineers for life, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council should be asked to follow the PEC example instead of registering doctors for five to 10 years.
The speaker suggested to her that instead of raising a point of order, she move a resolution.
Begum Bilqees Mukhtar drew the attention the house to the “desecration” of the holy Quran by Muslims themselves who collected damaged copies of the holy book and dropped them into the sea in the coastal area of Clifton, where sewerage lines were also flowing. She stressed the need for creating awareness of the sanctity of the Quran and suggested that the government’s Auqaf Department be asked to collect all such Quarnic papers and sink them into deep sea.
Manzoor Wasan informed the house, in response to a point of order raised by Nusrat Abbasi on Tuesday, that Madina Colony in Khairpur was not in Luqman deh but in deh Nizamani. The PPP government was getting a plot measuring 200 acres vacated from land grabbers, who had built 15 to 16 katcha houses on the land, as the government planned to build low-cost housing units for shelterless people.
This statement was contested by Nusrat Abbasi and it was decided that she would sit with the minister to sort out the controversy of location of Madina Colony, which was a 40-year-old settlement.
Education Minister Pir Mazhar, in response to a point of order of Amanullah Mehsud, said Allama Iqbal Degree College on Sharea Faisal was a nationalised college whose owners wanted to get it vacated or paid rent, which was too high. However, its case was in court.
Meanwhile the government was working on legislation that any building of educational institution which got vacated by its private owner could not be used for any purpose other than education. He assured the house that students would not be deprived of their education.Earlier, at the outset when Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro called the house to order at 11.45am, Arif Mustafa Jatoi drew the attention of the speaker towards what he called the indifferent attitude of the education minister who had failed to answer the questions he had submitted in August and whose reminders were sent in September and August.
He asked for permission to move a privilege motion, but as under the rules only one privilege motion could be taken, he was not allowed by the speaker. He staged a token walkout to protest against the attitude of the minister.
Pir Mazhar, responding to his protest, informed the house that Mr Jatoi, instead of waiting for the turn of his question to be answered, left the house in haste, lodging an uncalled-for protest, but probably he had some other engagement to attend to.
Pir Mazhar was defended by his colleague, Syed Murad Ali Shah, while Leader of the Opposition Jam Madad Ali asked the education minister not to malign waderas by referring to the reaction of Mr Jatoi as “a manifestation of wadera mentality”.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.