KHAIRPUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that his government has succeeded in maintaining law and order in the province and there had not been this much peace during the last 30 years as has been maintained during the PPP in government.

Mr Shah added that 80 per cent of terrorism has been controlled and there has been a clear reduction in kidnapping, robbery and targeted killing. He expressed these views at a ceremony held at the Government Naz Pilot Higher School, Khairpur, on Sunday after inaugurating the repair and renovation work of the school, its computer laboratory and library. The renovations have been funded by the Book Foundation Group in collaboration with the Sindh government under a public-private partnership.

The CM said that seeing the quality and standard of education of Naz High School, Pir Illahi Bux enrolled his children in this school. Thus, teachers should try to maintain the same standard of education.

He added that the Sindh government improved the infrastructure of the school and now it’s the teachers’ responsibility to work towards quality education. He further pointed out that the outer building of the school has been well-built and now the school administration should dedicate a sense of belonging in order to run the school in a befitting manner.

Mr Shah said that his government was trying to establish a cadet college in each district of the province and was putting in every effort to improve education and health facilities for the people of Sindh. Later, he inaugurated the Khairpur branch of the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges within the building of the Colonel Shah Hostel which has been renovated at a cost of Rs10 million. He also visited classrooms at the school. Principal Ahmed Kaya gave a briefing to the CM on the performance of the school.

Talking to the media afterwards, Mr Shah said that his government was making all efforts to provide better health facilities to the masses and that more funds would be released for Civil Hospital, Khairpur, and the shortage of doctors at the hospital will be attended to.

Sukkur Commissioner Muhammad Abbas Baloch, SSP Pir Mohammad Shah and Book Foundation director Syed Sami Mustafa were also present.

Grand alliance against PPP

On Saturday, the CM spoke to reporters after a meeting on the law and order situation held at the Khaipur Circuit House. He said that the people defeated by the PPP in the recent local government elections had formed a grand alliance against it. Similar efforts had been made in the past to defeat the PPP but no alliance could succeed, he said, and added that the PPP was keeping the promises made by its founder chairman Z.A. Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto by selflessly serving the masses. He said the PPP would also defeat the new grand alliance.

Hepatitis control programme

Speaking about hepatitis vaccinations being made available in all divisional headquarters of Sindh, the CM said that people will be provided with free health facilities and said that school children should be given hepatitis preventive vaccinations so that the future of Sindh may be secured from this chronic disease.

He was addressing members of the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme and doctors at Circuit House, Khairpur on Saturday evening after a briefing on the anti-hepatitis camps set-up in various union councils of district Khairpur. The CM added that hepatitis is spreading rapidly therefore special attention needs to be given to screening and treatment of the disease in all districts of Sindh. He directed doctors, paramedical staff and the administration to take all possible steps in this regard.

In the briefing, Commissioner Sukkur Muhammad Abbas Baloch, Dr Ghulam Qadir Phul and other concerned members of the committee said that 30pc of people of district Khairpur have been vaccinated under the CM’s Hepatitis programme and screening of 3.5 lac people has been done of which around 50 thousand people have been found suffering from the disease.

They added that 17 thousand of these ailing patients have been given treatment. There are people suffering from hepatitis B and C too however, there is a shortage of screening kits. Hepatitis camps have been arranged in several villages of district Khairpur and next on the agenda is the setting-up of a camp at PC School Chatri Chowk, Khairpur.

Earlier, the CM also offered his condolence to Gulzar Bhutto on the death of his father PPP worker Nabban Bhutto. DIG Larkana Abdullah Shaikh and other officials accompanied the Sindh CM.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016