Sindh cabinet okays Rs3.3bn for repair of school buildings to be used as polling stations

KARACHI: The Sindh caretaker cabinet in over two hours of its sitting on Friday discussed 24 agenda items and took important decisions, including recruiting assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) through the provincial public service commission and approving Rs357 million for the Sindh Rangers to strengthen its operational capacity.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retired) Maqbool Baqar at the CM House.

The School Education Department told the cabinet that the deputy commissioners and executive engineers of districts concerned conducted an identification drive of schools to be used as polling stations for the provision of missing facilities.

Committees identified 9,901 schools, including 1,015 in Karachi, 4520 in Hyderabad and 4,366 in Sukkur which needed to be repaired along with the provision of missing facilities.

A sum of Rs3.3 billion is required for the repair and maintenance of these 9,901 schools. The cabinet approved the proposal for the release of these funds.

The Home Department, briefing the cabinet, said that the Police Department had sent a requisition for general recruitment against 1,046 posts of assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) of police through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

The cabinet had in its meeting on May 29, 2001, decided on intermediate as the basic educational qualification for the recruitment for the ASI post, and since then the hiring of ASIs has been carried out based on the same educational qualification.

It was pointed out that under the “Sindh Police (Shaheed, Deceased, permanently invalidated or incapacitated quota) Recruitment Rules 2021, the requisite qualification for the post of ASIs is graduation, while under the cabinet decision of May 29, 2001, the requisite qualification is second-class intermediate college-level education.

The cabinet fixed the standard of qualification for recruiting ASIs as degree-level education (graduation) and their recruitment will be made through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

The Home Department told the cabinet that the Pakistan Rangers have requested provision of Rs357 million for upgrading riot control measures by equipping itself with water cannons, quick response force vehicles and reliable communication equipment. The cabinet discussed the matter and approved the funds to strengthen the operational capacity of Rangers in the province.

The cabinet was told that the federal government had claimed liabilities relating to the deployment of the Frontier Constabulary in Sindh from 2005 to 2008 in aid of the civil administration for the maintenance of law and order.

The amount claimed by the federal government includes Rs149,563,697 as pay and allowances, and Rs77,340,849 and Rs77,340,849 for Internal duties. The total amount comes to Rs226.902 million. The cabinet approved the amount to clear the liability.

On a request of the Health Department, the cabinet approved the allotment of three-acre land in Deh Nando Kohistan in District Sukkur free-of-cost. The Health Department on this piece of land will establish a satellite centre of the Sindh Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

The provincial cabinet discussed two names for directors of M/s Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC). The nomination of Asif Haider Mirza (CFA) was approved for director SECMC while the name of Liaquat Ali would be considered after the provision of his biodata to the cabinet members. Chairman Planning & Development Board Shakil Mangnejo would be ex-officio director and act as chairman of the board.

The cabinet also approved the Sindh Shaheed Recognition and Compensation Rules 2023.