KARACHI, Jan 24: Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro has instructed the authorities concerned to grant basic pay scales of 9 and 15 to the teachers of Government School for Blind like junior schoolteachers and high schoolteachers in the province.
The teachers of Government School for Blinds, Sukkur, had requested the governor for the grant of such pay scales, saying they were deprived of such scales though the teachers of government schools had been given BPS-9 and 15 according to their ranks in 1983.
The governor instructed the authorities for necessary action. Now the departments of education and finance have decided to implement the governor‘s directives.
Presiding over a meeting in the Governor’s House about improvement in public transport, the governor emphasized upon the traffic police authorities to control traffic in a civilized manner.
The meeting was attended by chief secretary Javed Ashraf Husain, principal secretary to the governor Brig Akhtar Zamin (retd), secretary finance Fazal Rahman, district coordination officer Karachi Shafiqur Rahman Paracha and other government officials.
The governor instructed the authorities that a large number of omnibuses be introduced in the city.
A committee, headed by the secretary transport, was formed to submit recommendations in this respect.
SOCIAL UPLIFT: Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro said here on Thursday the government would facilitate private social development initiatives and welcome all such ideas to help improve good governance.
He was presiding over a meeting on “Enabling Environment Initiative,” a programme of activities organized by the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), to develop a positive regulatory and fiscal regime for the improved role of citizens’ organizations in national development in the Governor’s House.
The governor emphasized that NGOs should be open to high degree of accountability and that a new regulatory mechanism ensure the elimination of dishonest NGos. He, however, said the government should not interfere where state coffers were not involved and there was no complaint from private citizens. Those functions, which were better performed by the private and voluntary sector, should be given to them, he added.
The PCP, led by a Board of Directors, consisting of prominent citizens from government, business, and civil society organisations, is a recently created independent, autonomous non-profit organization aiming to promote philanthropic activities in Pakistan.
Dr Shams Kassim Lakha, chairman of the Board of Directors of PCP, and president of Aga Khan University, briefed the participants about the findings of the survey on indigenous philanthropy (some Rs70 billion were given each year in cash and kind in Pakistan in 1998) and the process through which the PCP was created.
The participants agreed that there should be a mechanism, preferably in the private sector, which should certify and rate NGOs after a through performance audit. This would enable the government to link fiscal and related incentives to performance. This would also enable the donors to make more informed decisions.
The participants also agreed that implementation of laws was the central issue and that innovative approaches like self-regulation and government-civil society partnerships should be considered to meet that key challenge.—PPI
