KARACHI, April 26: The Sindh ministry of industries, commerce, labour and transport has been bifurcated into three ministries, namely industries & commerce, transport and labour under the new elected set-up.

The ministry, which had earlier one minister and one secretary, will now have three ministers and an equal number of secretaries, sources in the ministry told Dawn.

The four subjects were put together in one ministry about seven years ago, perhaps with the objective of reducing administrative cost.

With the advent of deregulation and liberalization, the role of commerce was almost non-existent; the transport affairs were transferred to the city district government, while the role of labour wing of the ministry also became redundant when the department was stopped from inspection of factories to see the labour conditions.

The labour directorate officials said the only function left with them was registration of factories under the company law and dealing with the cases filed in the labour courts.

The transport wing of the ministry also virtually had no business to perform as it failed to evolve a modern and efficient public transport system in Karachi.

Over the years it also failed to control the smoke-emitting buses causing pollution. The decision to stop registration of two-stroke rickshaws from July 1, 2007 was also taken back on pressure from the local transporters association.

The directorate of industries, which once thrived on issuing import licences, also lost its lustre with the advent of deregulation and liberalisation of trade and industry. It was also deprived of its mandatory function to issue NOC to new industries.

The only major function performed by the ministry over the years was to set up large and small industrial estates in Karachi and the interior of Sindh, which included an industrial estate on Northern Bypass.

The estate has also earmarked plots for women enterprises. However, the allotment of plots in the estate is pending since the caretakers’ time as the sponsors waited for the new government to do the job.

One of the major decisions of the ministry during last two years was the permission to set up six sugar mills in a bid to expedite process of industrialisation in the interior.

Political observers believe that the ministry has been bifurcated in three entities to accommodate greater number of the Pakistan People’s Party aspirants and its coalition partners.

The labour and transport ministries have already been given to the Awami National Party while the minister of industries has yet to be appointed.

The sources said that the ministry had been headed by a Muttahida Qaumi Movement minister for the last five years and the ruling party is perhaps waiting for the outcome of the talks with the MQM before appointing a minister to head the ministry.