• Fixes wheat support price at Rs4,000 per 40kg
• Approves Rs2m each for families of villagers killed in Sakrand
• Minimum wage set at Rs32,000

KARACHI: The caretaker Sindh cabinet on Tuesday approved a hefty allocation of Rs4.5 billion, outside the budget amount, for the deportation of illegal immigrants in the province.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by interim Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar, was attended among others by provincial ministers, Chief Secretary Dr Fakhre Alam, PS to CM Agha Wasif, Home Secretary Muhammed Iqbal Memon and Finance Secretary Kazim Jatoi.

The home secretary informed the cabinet that the federal government had decided to repatriate all illegal immigrants from Nov 1. He said that the interior minister had shared the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP), outlining the necessary actions to be taken by all the provinces.

He said that the federal cabinet had approved the plan and decided that the provinces would bear the cost of logistics, etc.

The cabinet was told that an amount of Rs4.5bn was required to carry out the repatriation of illegal immigrants from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Larkana divisions.

The cabinet after discussion approved the funds apart from the budgetary allocations.

The CM directed the home minister to provide necessary police support to the district administration in that regard.

Meanwhile, Karachi Commissioner Muhammad Saleem Rajput decided that all deputy commissioners would carry out coordinated efforts with the support of police and Rangers for implementation of the federal government directive.

The meeting was informed that the illegal immigrants settled in the city had been identified by the National Database and Registration Authority and an action plan had been finalised for their repatriation.

Talking to Dawn, the commissioner said that two holding centres had been established at Haji Camp, Sultanabad and nearby Ameen House.

He said that the undocumented immigrants were shifted from their places to the holding centres first and later they would be deported via Chaman border crossing.

Wheat price

The cabinet decided to fix the support price of wheat for 2023-24 at Rs4,000 per 40 kilograms

The food secretary told the cabinet that the procurement target of wheat was set at 1.4 million tonnes in February, adding that the procurement was made at 777,258 tonnes and the carry forward stock was 42,525 tonnes.

He said that the total stock of the commodity with the provincial government had come to 819,803 tonnes, which showed a shortfall of 580,197 tonnes.

The food secretary said the provincial government had already demanded 500,000 tonnes of wheat from the federal government, which had started arriving.

He said the food department had to provide wheat to the flour mills for which the cabinet had to approve a release policy and issue price.

Discussing the wheat release policy, the cabinet decided that the flour mills found involved in any kind of misappropriation of government wheat/irregularity in payment of government dues, such as cost of wheat and mark-up, shall be released the commodity upon payment of the dues.

The cabinet decided to release wheat at Rs10,500 per 100/kg bag from Nov 10.

After deliberation, the provincial cabinet decided to fix the support price of wheat for 2023-24 at Rs4,000 per 40 kilograms.

It was told that the food department procured wheat as per the target and support price was fixed by the cabinet.

The provincial cabinet approved Rs2 million each as compensation to the heirs of four victims of the Sakrand operation as well as free education to one child of each deceased.

New NICVD executive director

The health department told the cabinet that under the National Institute of the Cardiovascular Disease Act 2014, the executive director was to be appointed through a competitive process.

The process was followed, and Prof Tahir Saghir was selected by the selection committee.

The cabinet approved the appointment of Prof Saghir as the new executive director of the NICVD.

The cabinet also approved the minimum wage of workers at Rs 32,000 per month.

At the outset of the meeting, the cabinet strongly condemned the Israelis atrocities on Gaza and the killing of innocent people in Palestine. The Israeli occupying forces targeted civilians and even did not spare hospitals, it said and demanded an immediate ceasefire.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2023