Opposition MPA objects to overwhelming 26 special assistants to chief minister

The Sindh Assembly on Friday discussed the issue of over-two-dozen persons appointed as special assistants to the Sindh chief minister as a legislator pointed out that the province of Punjab, which having much larger population, had only four special assistants to its CM.

The issue of the unusual number of special assistants to the Sindh CM, which now stands at 26 following the last round of the provincial cabinet’s expansion in August this year, came under discussion in the form of a call-attention notice by an opposition legislator.

Speaking on his call-attention notice, Grand Democratic Alliance legislator Arif Mustafa Jatoi said it seemed that that the rules of business of the Sindh government did not impose any restriction on the maximum number of aides the CM could appoint.

He added that the Punjab CM had just four special assistants despite the fact that it was the biggest province of the country with the population of 110 million. Jatoi pointed out that Sindh had so many aides to the CM despite having only a 50 million population.

The GDA MPA said any special assistant to the CM did not have the privilege of getting the facility of a security squad and they were also not authorised to display the national flag on their vehicles.

The opposition lawmaker said Sindh should not have such a large number of special assistants to the CM when the provincial government often complained about less funds received from the federal government. He was of the view that the Sindh government could carry out more public service works by saving millions of rupees through curtailing such a large number of special assistants to the CM.

Responding to the call-attention notice, Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said the government of Punjab had its own rules of business which were different from those of the Sindh government.

He added that every province had the right to appoint aides to the CM. Countering the point of the GDA lawmaker who had said that the Punjab CM had only four special assistants, Chawla said Punjab had 36 provincial ministers, which was far more than the number of provincial ministers in Sindh.

The parliamentary affairs minister remarked that no special assistant to the CM in Sindh had been imported from outside the province. The lone MPA of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Syed Abdul Rasheed, in another call-attention notice raised the issue of plight of the basic health units of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and District Municipal Corporation (DMC) in District South of the city.

He said the buildings of dispensaries and maternity homes of the KMC and DMC South had been in an utter dilapidated state so much so that one got the impression that they belonged to the era of Mohen-Jo-Daro.

He said these health facilities were unable to dispense any treatment service to the concerned area residents as their buildings were being used by stray dogs to get shelter. According to Rasheed, doctors were not ready to visit these health facilities to provide treatment to the general public.

Responding to the call-attention notice, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Muhammad Saleem Baloch said the KMC had five dispensaries in District South and three other primary health care centres had also been functioning in the district.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Bilal Ghaffar in his call-attention notice raised the issue of the Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) as he said that the federal government had been working to launch the Green Line section of the Bus Rapid Transit Service in he city and also revive the Karachi Circular Railway, according to what it had promised to do under the KTP.

The opposition lawmaker wanted to know what work had so far been done by the Sindh government as its part in the KTP. Responding to the call-attention notice, the parliamentary affairs minister said the federal planning and development ministry was the appropriate forum for such a question and it should be approached to seek responses on queries related to the KTP.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Muhammad Hussain Khan in his call-attention notice raised the issue of Urdu language not being used for official correspondence and registration of first information reports by the provincial police force.

The parliamentary secretary for law, Ghanwer Khan Isran, said Urdu was the national language of the country while Sindhi was the mother tongue of the province and they were proud of both the languages. He said the Sindh government had been making efforts to ensure the imposition of both the languages in the province as much as possible.

Later, the House adopted an amendment to the rules of the procedure of the Sindh Assembly in order to allow those special assistants to the Sindh CM who are members of the House to respond to the queries of lawmakers during the question hour of the session.

The opposition legislators protested and objected to the passage of the amendment, saying that only provincial ministers were authorised to respond during the question hour of the session.