KARACHI: The Sindh government is framing legislation to make ‘Master Plan’ a separate authority independent from the Sindh Building Control Authority in the light of directives of the Supreme Court.

The legislation would be finalised within one month for presentation before a committee constituted by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah comprising members of the Sindh cabinet and technocrats. After consideration by the committee, the legislation draft would be sent for the approval of the cabinet.

This emerged on Monday from a meeting of the cabinet committee which met here at the office of the secretary of local government presided over by Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani.

The meeting was attended by Provincial Transport Minister Syed Owais Shah, Law Adviser to the Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab, local government secretary Syed Khalid Haider Shah, DG of SBCA Iftikhar Qaimkhani, DG of KDA Abdul Qadeer Mangi, director of SBCA Mushtaq Soomro, eminent architect Yasmin Lari, CEO of Heritage Foundation Asad A. Khan, chairman of Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners Dr Mir Shabbir Ali, dean Faculty of Civil Engineering NED University and others officers concerned.

At the meeting reports of meetings of four subcommittees constituted by the chief minister were also presented.

Yasmin Lari informed the meeting participants that on the directive of the apex court a fresh survey of heritage buildings was completed in which 1,600 buildings were included which were declared by the government.

The Heritage Foundation had been working on their maintenance and repairs, she added. She also said that the heritage buildings would be included in the proposed master plan authority.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Saeed Ghani said: “We are bound to implement all directives of the apex court, but at some points we had to file a request in the court for review of its verdict in the light of ground realities.”

Regarding the recent anti-encroachment drive carried out on court orders, he said there were thousands of people affected by the operation who were still not provided with alternative places for running their business due to legal formalities. He said rehabilitation would be time-consuming and needed land and funds.

He said that because of inordinate delay in getting due share from the NFC award, many projects of the Sindh government had been suspended.

Disappointing performance

Presiding over another meeting, the local government minister said that the performance of directors, deputy directors and assistant directors was disappointing as they had failed to come up to the expectations in fulfilling their legal obligations.

“We want to take the local government in the right direction, but if someone feels that they are unable to discharge their responsibilities they better quit the job and go home.”

New Saudi CG meets chief minister

The people of Saudi Arabia consider Pakistan a fortress of Islam and are keen to see Pakistan a prosperous and developed country and will continue to extend full cooperation to Pakistan so that the country could become prosperous.

These views were expressed by newly posted Saudi Consul General Bandar Fahad Aldail, who called on Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here on Tuesday at CM House.

During the meeting, welcoming the Saudi consul general, the chief minister referred to investment opportunities in Sindh and offered Saudi entrepreneurs full cooperation to make investment and take advantage of the opportunities.

Earlier they exchanged views regarding bilateral relations and promoting trade and other matters of mutual interest.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019