KARACHI, Sept 12: Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah on Friday asked the provincial Law Minister, Chaudhary Iftekhar, to provide him with all correspondence between the federal government and Sindh government pertaining to the issue of Thal Canal to enable him frame his ruling on the admissibility of an adjournment motion.

The motion had been moved by Syed Qaim Ali Shah against the construction of the canal.

The Speaker told the law minister that before giving a ruling on the question of admissibility of the adjournment motion, he wanted to see how far the provincial government had pursued the two resolutions adopted by the House against the construction of Thal Canal.

Chaudhary Iftekhar assured the Speaker that he would provide the required documents at the earliest.

Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad, who holds the portfolio of Finance, informed the House that Sindh’s financial position had remained precarious over the last nine years because the federal government had not released its due share in the divisible pool.

He said that owing to this lapse, the provincial government was not able to allocate adequate funds for social sector, especially education.

The minister told the House that the government was facing great difficulties to meet the expenditure during the current financial year due to the 15 per cent raise in salaries of government employees.

He regretted that the federal government was neither releasing Sindh’s share nor announcing a new NFC Award.

WATER SHORTAGE; The Speaker asked the law minister to find out the causes of shortage of water in the canals controlled by farmer’s organizations, APP adds.