KARACHI, March 30: Sindh is going through a very critical phase where poverty has attained the mark of 54 per cent and per capita income of 82 per cent of the population is not more than one dollar a day.
This was observed by provincial minister Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh who was speaking at a luncheon hosted in his honour at a local hotel on Sunday. A former speaker of National Assembly, Illahi Bux Soomro, and Dur Muhammad Bhatti also spoke on the occasion. Justice (r) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, was sitting on the rostrum along with the other guests.
Terming the controversial Jirga system ‘curse’, Mr Shaikh called for drastic reforms in the country’s judiciary so as to ensure prompt restoration of justice to aggrieved. He was of the view that people went for Jirga to avoid intolerable delay, normally of several years, in regular courts’ proceedings.
He suggested that legislators should enact laws to abolish the Jirga system and as a first step Jirgas should be barred from tackling criminal cases.
He drew attention of the society and certain NGOs to the plight of prisoners, especially women, who were languishing in jails only because they were unable to arrange money for bail though granted to them. The condition of prisons is also pathetic, he pointed out.
Mr Shaikh criticized closure of SAZDA and other institutions on the grounds that they were running in losses. Arguing that the losses were caused by poor governance and cited the examples of similar institutions not closed in other provinces.
The minister observed that Sindh had suffered a lot due to a long dry spell and the cyclone that had hit several districts mainly Badin and Thatta. He pointed out that the natural calamities had virtually devastated the province’s economy over the last decade.
Calling for more research centres in Sindh to recommend certified seeds, he regretted that while Punjab had more than 100 functioning research centres, Sindh had only one in Sakrand.
The minister also spoke of the grievances of sugarcane growers and called for remedial measures.
Speaking on the occasion, Illahi Bux Soomro said that Sindh was going to suffer due to water scarcity. In this regard, he recalled that he had always maintained that Kalabagh dam project could benefit the people of Sindh only when sufficient water was available for the project. As the required quantity of water is not available, such a project would adversely affect the province’s economy, he added.
Lashing out at the long standing practice of appointing and maintaining ‘officers on special duty’ (OSDs), Mr Soomro insisted that there was no point in paying remunerations to such bureaucrats for doing nothing.
