KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to establish satellite centres of the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in all the divisional headquarters and in the first phase one would be set up in Mirpurkhas.

He took this decision here on Monday at the CM House while presiding over a meeting to resolve all the outstanding issues of the NICH.

Separately, the CM on Monday evening hosted a reception for spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.

Regarding the affairs of the NICH, the CM was told that from 2011 only status quo had been maintained. Neither fresh recruitment had been made nor promotions had been given to suitable qualified professionals and equipment had also not been added. Therefore, the NICH was facing serious problems to improve its services further.

The NICH has sanctioned strength of 1,035 medical and paramedical staff against which 674 are working, which shows a shortfall of 361 staff members.

First such centre to be set up in Mirpurkhas

The chief minister approved promotions of 43 qualified and experienced professionals and also approved new posts of 150 staff members, medical and paramedical staff, and directed the health and finance secretaries to have a meeting with the NICH director to work out a detailed schedule of new expenditure so that new positions could be created for efficient functioning of the institute.

The CM said he wanted the NICH to work on the pattern of the NICVD, under an independent board of directors that would take all its administrative and financial matters and run the satellite centres which would be established on war footing in every divisional headquarters.

He said the first NICH satellite centre would be established in Mirpurkhas so that it would work efficiently in the entire division, with a particular focus on Tharparkar to control mother and child nutrition issues there.

The CM was told that the NICH had an old generator with lower capacity and needed an MRI machine. He approved purchase of new generator and an MRI machine and directed the health department to move a summary for formal approval.

The CM also directed the finance department to release the budget of the NICH so that it could meet all its expenditures, including maintenance of equipment, medicines and others.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Adviser to CM Murtaza Wahab, principal secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Finance Secretary Najam Shah, Health Secretary Saeed Awan, NICH director Syed Jamal Raza, additional secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi and other officers concerned.

Meeting with Syedna

Murad Ali Shah hosted a reception for spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin on Monday evening here at CM House.

The reception was attended by Corps Commander Karachi Lt Gen Humayun Aziz, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Commander Karachi Vice Admiral Mohammad Amjad Khan Niazi, DG Rangers Major General Omer Khan Bukhari, COMKAR, provincial cabinet members Hari Ram Kishori Lal, Shabbir Bijarani, Saeed Ghani, Imtiaz Shaikh, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Murtaza Baloch, Shehla Raza, Murtaza Wahab, Special Assistant to CM Waqar Mehdi, IG Sindh Dr Kaleem Imam, principal secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro and others.

The chief minister thanked Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin for visiting Karachi. “We still remember your last visit during Muharramul Haram,” he said and added “it is manifestation of your [Syedna] confidence in provincial government that you took another visit.”

Syedna Mufaddal thanked the provincial government for welcoming him with open arms. On the occasion Syedna Mufaddal offered dua for peace and prosperity of Pakistan and province of Sindh and its people.

MoU with Kuwaiti firm

The Sindh government and Kuwaiti company Enertech Holdings on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to invest in power sector in the province.

The Kuwaiti company in collaboration with the provincial government will liaise with all the relevant provincial and federal authorities to get the required approval for implementation of power projects in the province.

Under the MoU, the Kuwait company would invest in waste to energy projects, starting with a 50MW power project at Karachi that is scalable upwards to a mutually agreed capacity as well as in other municipalities of Sindh that are identified and agreed upon for implementation.

All individual projects under this memorandum shall be governed by individual agreements and are subject to the regulatory compliance and the coordination process between the parties. The investment in individual projects may include other possible investment partners, subject to provisions of policy of Sindh government in vogue.

Enertech has appointed Yasser Malik as its key person who shall coordinate the progress of the projects with the Sindh government.

The signing ceremony was performed by Investment Secretary Ahsan Mangi on behalf of the provincial government while Mr Abdullah AlMutairi, CEO of Enertech Holding Kuwait, signed the MoU on behalf of Kuwait.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2019