KARACHI, Aug 16: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Wednesday ordered that 2,900 closed government schools in the province would be opened at the earliest.
Speaking at a meeting about development projects of the education, agriculture, irrigation, communication, mineral development, Auqaf and forestry departments in the Chief Minister's House, he said the Sindh government was focusing on raising the standard of education as well as literacy rate in the province.
He said 12 per cent of the total development expenditure in the budget of Sindh had been earmarked for the promotion of education. He instructed officials that database of all villages still devoid of schools should be prepared so that planning could be made to open schools in those areas.
Dr Arbab said special attention be paid to teaching English in all government schools from primary level.
Regarding the uplift projects in the communication sector, he said that Rs6 billion was being spent on them. He said that complete monitoring of these projects should be ensured.
He said the Sindh government had allocated Rs1 billion for water and power besides raising uplift budget of the agriculture sector by 130 per cent so that a boost could be provided to this sector. He said Sindh was an agriculture-based province and development in this sector meant overall progress and prosperity of the whole province.
Dr Arbab said that Allah the Almighty had bestowed Sindh with rich mineral resources. He said a master plan be made to fully utilize these resources.
He said that on the instruction of President General Pervez Musharraf the performance of all departments was being improved. He said he would continue to get briefings on the steps being taken in this regard. He said the pace of work on all uplift projects in Sindh should be accelerated, but their adequate publicity should also be ensured so that the people and the media could know about them.
He said the Sindh government had earmarked Rs10.7 million for Urs celebrations of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai and Sachal Sarmast so that their Urs could be celebrated in a befitting manner. He instructed the provincial Auqaf minister to chalk put a comprehensive programme for providing facilities to devotees of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar during his Urs to be held next month.
Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro, Irrigation Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari, Population Welfare Minister Syed Pappu Shah, Women's Development Minister Dr Saeeda Malik, Works and Services Minister Syed Sadaruddin Shah, Mineral Development Minister Irfanullah Marwat, Law Minister Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed, Auqaf Minister Manzoor Panhwar, Adviser for Agriculture Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, Forest Adviser Ijaz Shah Shirazi, Special Education Adviser Manzoor Ali Shah, Sindh Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman, Principal Secretary to CM Ayub Shaikh, and provincial secretaries of various departments were present.
Separately, Dr Arbab toom a serious notice of a report regarding the condition of graves of Pakistan Movement leaders Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani and Allama Sulaiman Nadvi and directed the Sindh culture secretary to carry out urgent repairs of the graves. He said the respect of Pakistan Movement leaders was a duty of all of us.
He also directed the Sindh Adabi Board to reprint Allama Sulaiman Nadvi's famous book on relations of India and the Arab world, in both Urdu and Sindhi.
Meanwhile, the Sindh chief minister on Wednesday met Balochistan Minister of Sports Younus Changezi at the CM House. Both leaders discussed matters of common interests.
Sindh Assembly Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana, Irrigation Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari, MPA Afshan Imran, Tando Allahyar district nazim Dr Raheela Magsi, Chairman Anti-Corruption and IGP Sindh also called on Dr Arbab at the CM House.
Separately, Dr Arbab inaugurated tree-plantation campaign in Sindh province, by planting a sapling in the Chief Minister's House. He appealed to the citizens to plant more and more trees to make the campaign a big success.—PPI
