KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday passed two bills returned again by the governor with certain objections, and, as Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in the house, Sindh made a statement that it would continue to strive for the protection of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

One of the two bills was The Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Bill 2018, which the provincial legislature had unanimously passed during the current session days before the apex court ordered return of three major government hospitals in Karachi to the central government.

The SICVD is meant to run all the satellite facilities and chest pain units of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) — one of the hospitals ordered to be transferred to Islamabad’s control.

CM Shah said those satellite facilities in various cities of Sindh and the chest pain units (CPUs) in Karachi had been set up by the Sindh government and had been handed over to the NICVD under a memorandum of understanding, which could be scrapped at any time.

CM is confident that Sindh will get back the three hospitals through a review petition in Supreme Court

The headquarters of the SICVD would be established in Sukkur or Karachi.

Mr Shah said health had been a provincial subject since 1935 and the NICVD, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and National Institute of Child Health had been established by the government when the then undivided country’s west wing, which now represented the whole of Pakistan, was named West Pakistan by merging the four provinces.

“Since then there were no provinces these hospitals were established and run by the federal government. However, immediately after the 18th Amendment was passed, the federal government itself handed them over to us,” said Mr Shah while wrapping up discussion during the reconsideration of the SICVD bill.

He said the NICVD was being given less than Rs700 million before it was handed over to the provincial government, and now its budget had touched Rs14 billion.

He said the objections the governor had quoted in his summary while returning the SICVD bill to the Sindh Assembly “had no foundation”.

Mr Shah said all satellite centres had been established by the Sindh government in various parts of the province. These facilities, he added, had been financed and managed by the provincial government and had not been given by Islamabad.

He referred to a recent statement of the federal secretary for health services in which he reportedly said the federal government could not bear expenditures of the NICVD and other major hospitals which the court had ordered to be given to Islamabad.

“We have released so much funds to the NICVD that it had become a leading hospital in the world, offering free angioplasties and other facilities. Similarly, we have made improvements in the JPMC with the help of the private sector,” said the chief minister.

He said his government had referred the governor’s objections to its law department, which had confirmed that the SICVD bill was not against the SC ruling. He added that even a couple of retired judges of the Supreme Court had said health was purely a provincial subject.

“The federal authorities are adamant to ruin these three hospitals, which we’ll not allow. We will file a petition to review the SC judgement and we are confident that we will get these hospitals back.” However, he added, till then “no one would stop us from lawmaking”.

Mr Shah, however, said if the NICVD did not come back to the Sindh government, “the satellite facilities are our property, the paediatric cardiology centre on the NICVD premises is established by the Sindh government, we’ll be running and managing it as there is no legal issue in managing it”.

He said the passage of the bills returned by the governor again would mean the Sindh Assembly had made a statement that it was safeguarding the 18th Amendment, as the Constitution gave such powers to the provinces.

He said the basis for handing those hospitals to the Centre was that they also conducted research, which was a federal subject, while, he added, just Rs80m out of the Rs5bn budget of the JPMC was spent on research. Mr Shah said he had asked Prime Minister Imran Khan during their first meeting that his government should release funds equal to the Sindh government’s if those hospitals were transferred back to Islamabad.

He said after the re-passage of the bill returned by the governor, it did not need governor’s consent and would be automatically promulgated.

The Code of Civil Procedure bill

Mr Shah also spoke about The Code of Civil Procedure (Sindh Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was also returned by the governor with some objections, asking the house to pass it as it was since the bill was earlier considered by a select committee before being passed by the house unanimously.

Both the bills, however, were passed with majority vote as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s members opposed it.

Earlier, Opposition Leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi said both the federal and provincial governments should work hand in hand to serve the people of Sindh effectively.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Khwaja Izharul Hasan said the bills should again be reviewed by another select committee to address the governor’s objections.

Several other lawmakers, including Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, spoke on the issue.

Earlier, the house approved an adjournment motion moved by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Abdul Rasheed regarding the mess created by the widespread anti-encroachment drive in Karachi, and fixed Monday for a debate on it.

Uproar again

The house witnessed another pandemonium when Minister Pechuho raised a serious objection over a question asked by Grand Democratic Alliance’s Arif Jatoi in which he asked if there was a particular virus that affected politicians in jails.

The minister termed it a frivolous question, adding that how could it be asked by a lawmaker in the first place. She said after the question reached her department, she had recommended to scrap it altogether, but the GDA member insisted that it should be part of the agenda.

Mr Jatoi moved to the opposition benches and the PTI members rose in their seats as Speaker Siraj Durrani kept telling them to sit down, and let him decide.

Mr Jatoi stood in front of the chair at which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Chawla remarked that the GDA member needed a medical check-up.

Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh said such ploys were being used by the opposition members to ruin the assembly’s decorum.

Leader of the Opposition Firdous Naqvi alleged that someone on the treasury benches had abused him. Mr Shaikh said that the assembly’s records should be checked to confirm if someone had used abusive language.

The house formed a select committee to examine The Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019