Office work of no department could be made paperless, Sindh Assembly told

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Thursday that so far the paperwork of none of the departments of the Sindh government had been made fully computerised to implement the concept of a paperless office environment in the province.

Sindh Information Technology Minister Taimur Talpur made the confession to this effect while speaking in the question hour of the House. The IT minister, however, said that it was not just Sindh that had failed to fully computerise its operations as the office work of any of the provincial governments in the country had not been made paperless. He also claimed in the House that Sindh had been much ahead of other provinces in the field of IT.

Talpur was responding to a query of opposition legislator of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Rabia Azfar Nizami regarding any progress in implementing the project to make the work of 50 departments of the Sindh government paperless.

The IT minister said a joint information management system was being launched for all the government-run hospitals in Sindh to make fully automated the record of all the patients being treated at those health facilities.

He informed the House that the safe city project would be implemented in the province with the help of the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation in three years to make Karachi one of the safest cities in the world.

Privilege motion rejected

Meanwhile, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani rejected a privilege motion of opposition lawmaker of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Syed Abdul Rasheed, terming it out of order. The privilege motion pertained to the issue of alleged ‘horse-trading’ that took place in the House at the time of the recent Senate elections. The opposition legislator said that the sanctity of the House had been violated due to horse-trading and a special committee should be formed to investigate the issue.

Rasheed said that whatever drama had happened at the time of the Senate elections was a source of disgrace to all the members of the legislature. Meanwhile, the assembly adopted the adjournment motion of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Sadia Javed to discuss the issue of the increase in electricity rates in the country. The House will hold a discussion on the adjournment motion on Monday, March 29.

Membership suspension

The issue of the recent court order suspending the membership of two lawmakers of the treasury benches of the Sindh Assembly on account of rising cases of dog bites in their respective constituencies also came under discussion in the assembly.

Leader of Opposition in the House Haleem Adil Shaikh of the PTI demanded that the government should inform the legislators as to who was responsible for catching and killing the stray dogs in the province.

He said the opposition legislators in the House did not have any such municipal powers. Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Muhammad Hussain Khan said all the members of the House were concerned about the situation after the recent court order.

He said the local government department had not taken them into confidence about any campaign against the stray dogs in their respective constituencies and the concerned legislators were unable to extend cooperation in this regard. The speaker said that he had earlier served as the local government minister and he knew that municipal agencies were responsible to conduct such a campaign.

PPP lawmaker Sharjeel Inam Memon said the lawmakers in the House were supposed to pass legislation and they were not supposed to conduct any campaign against stray dogs. He added that the concerned lawmakers should come up with their version with regard to the recent court judgment.

Memon was of the view that members of all the parliamentary parties should file a collective petition in the court in this regard. Meanwhile, the House adopted the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University at Lyari, Karachi (Amendment) Bill-2020.

MQM-P’s Khan said that reserving 50 per cent seats of the university for candidates of four towns of the city was a discriminatory policy of the government and such a provision in the admission policy should be done away with for the sake of merit. The assembly rejected the amendment proposed by the MQM’s legislator and passed the bill with a majority vote.