KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Friday decided in principle to construct Sindh House in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and own and develop one of the five natural tunnels on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route, officials said.

“I am offering you to own a tunnel and develop it according to the culture of Sindh. The Sindh Tunnel will represent the people of your province in our area,” said GB Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeez Rehman at a meeting with Mr Shah at CM House.

The Sindh chief minister said it was the Pakistan Peoples Party government in the centre that gave Gilgit-Baltistan the status of a province and with the passage of time it would cement its position with the constitutional cover. “Our government sowed the seed of making Gilgit-Baltistan a province and definitely it will grow, and the life of its poor will change with the flourishing tourist industry.

“The GB would flourish further with the development of its infrastructure,” he added.

Mr Rehman said he had offered all the four provinces to build their provincial houses in GB. “I would allot you [Sindh government] a piece of land if you construct the Sindh House as you have constructed in Islamabad,” he said.

While appreciating his gesture, CM Shah accepted the offer to construct Sindh House there. He added: “This would help to interact with the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.”

Mr Shah also asked his principle secretary, Naveed Kamran Baloch, to put up a proposal and send a team to Gilgit-Baltistan to plan the tunnel work for cultural representation.

Referring to the education sector, the GB chief minister said there were only two seats reserved for students from GB in medical colleges across the Sindh province. Both the seats were being offered by the Chandka Medical College, he said, adding that there was hardly any seat in any other medical institution of Sindh. On this, CM Shah assured him that he would grant some more seats to the students from the GB.

Mr Shah also accepted his invitation to visit GB along with Sindh cabinet members.

Probe into polio cases report

Earlier, the chief minister referring to a section of the press which reported eight new polio cases had been detected in Dadu and Badin districts ordered the health secretary to conduct an inquiry into the media reports.

Health officials said they had not received confirmation of any case from the two districts. “The report is nothing but false,” an official said, adding that the deputy commissioner in Dadu had already got it investigated. It emerged that those children had a ‘congenital deformity, not polio’, he said.

However, officials said, the inquiry should cover the recent cases in Sujawal, where no investigation had been initiated as yet.

Out of seven confirmed polio cases in Sindh so far, one has been reported from Karachi, two each from from Shikarpur and Sujawal and one each from Jacobabad and Badin.

College named after pilot

Meanwhile, the Sindh chief minister approved a summary to name the newly constructed Govt Girls College, adjacent to APWA School in Liaquatabad as Shaheed Flight Officer Marium Mukhtiar Govt Girls Degree College.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2016