KARACHI, Feb 5 Ever since the ongoing session of the provincial Assembly of Sindh started on Monday, February 2, three ministers have answered other lawmakers' queries either through written replies or by responding to supplementary questions relating to their departments during the question hour.

Though usually only those replies get reported that generate debate on the floor of the house, many written replies go unnoticed as they are not discussed due to the paucity of time during the assembly's proceedings. Here is a round-up of some written replies provincial Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, Labour Minister Amir Nawab and Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani furnished to the house during their respective question hours.

On Wednesday, Syeda Marvi Rashdi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional had asked the education minister if it was a fact that the hostel of the Noor Mohammad High School, Hyderabad, was in the use of the Rangers and if so, had they rented out a portion to a private party.

Pir Mazhar had replied in the affirmative to both, and when the Functional League MPA asked in part (b) why this was so and did the government intend to get the hostel vacated, the Pir replied that the Rangers used the hostel for accommodation and efforts were being made to get it vacated. He added that the matter had been taken up with the Zila nazim and DCO Hyderabad so that the issue could be resolved amicably.

Ms Rashdi had also asked by how much private schools could increase their annual fees, and if the schools required the written permission of the education department's Directorate of Registration/Inspection of Private Institutions, Sindh.

Pir Mazhar replied that an increase of only five per cent of the last fees' schedule could be granted and that the fees could not be increased without the aforementioned department's permission.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Heer Ismail Soho had asked for the number of girls' and boys' private schools in Sindh without boundary walls. Pir Mazhar replied that 15,034 schools had no boundary wall in Sindh (6,193 boys, 1,802 girls and 7,039 mixed primary schools).

Ms Soho had also asked how many universities existed in Sindh, to which the education minister replied that there were 23 varsities in the province - 10 in the public sector and 13 in the private sector.

Ad-hoc teachers

The Pakistan People's Party's Ghulam Shah Jilani had asked the education minister if the government intended to regularise 860 ad-hoc lecturers appointed during 2005-06. Pir Mazhar said that though no provision existed in the Recruitment Rules of the Sindh government, the government intended to regularise the 860 lecturers “by giving them an opportunity through the Sindh Public Service Commission.”

Labour Minister Amir Nawab faced the legislators' queries during Tuesday's question hour. The PPP's Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto had asked for the amount the Sindh Employees' Social Security Institution (Sessi) had spent for the purchase of medicines for the head office as well as hospitals/dispensaries in Sindh in the period between 1/7/07 to 15/2/08. The minister said the amount came to Rs79,721,597.60.

To National People's Party lawmaker Arif Mustafa Jatoi's question about how many pensioners were on Sessi's rolls as on July 1, 2008, Amir Nawab said that 939 retired employees/pensioners were on Sessi's rolls from BPS-1to BPS-21in his written reply.

When Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani took the floor on Monday to field the lawmakers' questions, quite a few queries could not be taken up for discussion due to the lengthy debates-cum-statements that consumed most of question hour.

LEW affectees

Arif Jatoi had asked the minister if a large number of people affected by the construction of the Lyari Expressway still awaited compensation/resettlement. He further asked that if this was true, what did the government intend to do about it. In his written reply, Agha Siraj said that all the affectees had already been compensated/resettled. He further elaborated that there were two categories of affectees those who had leased properties had been compensated under the Land Acquisition Act, while “encroachers” had been compensated either through cash compensation as assessed by a survey team or full unit compensation (plot of 80 square yards plus cheque of Rs50,000).

As part of a question regarding the Karachi city district government's community police department (now renamed as the city wardens), Nadeem Bhutto had asked how many mobile vans had been purchased for the department and at what cost. The minister replied that 20 Toyota Hilux vehicles had been purchased at a total cost of Rs20.78 million (Rs1.039 million per vehicle).

PPP lawmaker Humera Alwani had asked if the government planned to implement the Karachi Mass Transit Programme, announced during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Agha Siraj said the government did intend to implement the KMTP. He said the present government had accorded top priority to the project and that the chief minister had issued directives to introduce a light rail system in Karachi, while the Asian Development Bank had agreed to provide technical and financial assistance towards the implementation of the KMTP.

In reply to Arif Jatoi's question regarding the veracity of a report which said that several valuable artworks had been stolen from the offices of the CDGK, Agha Siraj replied in the negative, adding that the confusion might have been caused by the publication of a news item in a section of the press. He added that no painting/art item was stolen from the Gallery Sadequain at Frere Hall.

Haji Mohammad Hayat Khan Talpur of the ruling PPP had asked the minister if it was a fact that 12 departments had been devolved to the district government and if so, did the Sindh government intend to bring these back into the provincial administration's fold.

Agha Siraj said that the revenue, education, education works, health, social welfare and agriculture (including forest and livestock) departments had been decentralized to the CDGK as per the SLGO-2001. As for the return of these departments to the province, he said “this issue is not yet finalized.”

When Humera Alwani asked the minister about the details of the illegal private water hydrants operating in the city and whether they were selling contaminated and unhygienic water, Agha Siraj, while listing the illegal hydrants which had been shut down, said that “the KWSB has no concern regarding selling of contaminated and unhygienic water to the people as the government of Sindh is the competent authority to take action against such water sellers.”