Law to be enacted to deal with dilapidated buildings, PA told

As occupants of dilapidated buildings in the province are not willing to vacate them, the Sindh government has not been able to raze such dangerous structures. Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said this at the Sindh Assembly on Friday while responding to queries of concerned lawmakers during the question hour of the session.He assured the House that the Sindh government was fully cognisant of its responsibilities with regard to the issue of several dilapidated buildings in the province. Laws would be enacted to tackle the problem of dilapidated buildings, he stated. Shah said many buildings that were currently in a dilapidated state in Karachi, Sukkur and other towns of the province had been built before the creation of Pakistan.He added that it was difficult to raze such buildings in a poor state where people were living. He told the House that there were some 450 buildings in a dilapidated state in Karachi, 80 in Hyderabad and 38 such old structures in Sukkur. He said the Sindh Building Control Authority had been making sure that new buildings being constructed in Karachi were able to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Hindu girl recovered Just a day after the Sindh Assembly witnessed a heated debate on the issue of incidents of kidnapping and forced conversion of girls belonging to the Hindu community in the province, the House was informed that a teenage Hindu girl who had recently gone missing from Qazi Ahmed town of the province had been recovered.Sindh Minister for Women Development Shehla Raza informed the concerned lawmakers about this development at the outset of the assembly proceedings. She said the missing girl from the Hindu community, Sohana Sharma, had been traced and the government wanted to bring her into its protective custody.

The girl was currently present at the Women Police Station, Nawabshah, Shehla said. She added that the government fully owned such children whose safety was endangered and the women development department had been actively working for the recovery of missing girls.Sanjay Perwani, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) MPA elected on a reserved seat for minorities, appreciated all the quarters who had made efforts for the recovery of the missing girl from Qazi Ahmed. He said it was a good sign that collective efforts had been made for the recovery of the kidnapped girl Sindh Minister for Minorities Affairs Giyan Chand Essran, greeted the entire House on the recovery of the girl. He said the Hindu fraternity of the province particularly deserved greetings in this regard. Essrani told the House that he had been constantly in touch with the Sindh inspector general of police for the safe recovery of the missing girl. He assured the lawmakers that the Sindh government stood fully committed to resolving the issues of the religious minorities in the province.

Also on the occasion, an MPA of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Ghulam Qadir Chandio, demanded that ‘missing’ Sindh Assembly members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf be also recovered in the same manner. It is worth mentioning that many MPAs of the PTI, including the leader of the opposition, Haleem Adil Sheikh, have not been attending the session of the Sindh Assembly since May 9 violent incidents in the country. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon assured the House that he would take action to ‘recover’ the missing legislators of the PTI if the speaker gave a ruling to this effect.