KARACHI: The Sindh government under a “pro-poor economic revival package” has decided to launch a Chief Minister Self-employment Scheme to advance interest-free small loans to the people.

This decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House. The meeting was attended by all provincial ministers, advisers, chief secretary and relevant secretaries.

The cabinet on the recommendation of the heritage committee approved a request of the owner of a building, Homie Katrak Chamber, Plot CL-9/22/7, Abdullah Haroon Road-Hoshang Road, for addition and alteration of the heritage building.

The compound of the building would remain the same with the revival and inside the compound, a 27-floor building would be constructed.

With regard to the loan programme, the chief minister said that the Covid-19 situation had turned a large number of people either unemployed or underemployed.

“This is the time to introduce a pro-poor economic package under which interest-free small loans may be offered to the people to start their small businesses or strengthen their ongoing business activities,” he said and added that he could spare Rs2 billion during the current financial year to start the scheme.

27-floor structure to be built at heritage site

The cabinet members approved the proposal and named it Chief Minister Self-employment Scheme. They unanimously sought an increase of its budgetary allocation to benefit a larger number of people.

He constituted a committee under Planning and Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem with the finance and law secretaries as its members to work out details of the programme.

The meeting was told that Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance, a non-governmental organisation, was advancing interest-free loans to poor people so that they could start their small businesses. Their recovery rate was 100 per cent.

The NGO representative gave a detailed briefing to the cabinet and they tasked the P&D chairman to meet them and share their model with the cabinet at its next meeting to be held before Ramazan.

Billboard policy

Local Government Secretary Najam Shah told the cabinet that a billboard and hoarding policy had been framed in the light of the Supreme Court’s orders.

He said under the policy billboards shall be built and installed according to the standard height, size and restrictions.

The cabinet approved the policy. However, a committee under Local Government Minister Nasir Husain Shah was constituted to further polish the policy.

Allotment of land

The provincial cabinet approved a proposal for the allotment of 13 acres of land to Jamia Islamia in Deh Tore, taluka Murad Memon, District Malir, at a rate of Rs10 million per acre for amenity purposes. The price of the land has been fixed by the District Price Fixation Committee.

Special court

The cabinet was told that the Sindh Cooperative Societies Act-2020 had been enforced. Under the act, a new special court will be established to hear cases pertaining to the societies.

Earlier, the cases were decided through arbitration.

The cabinet directed the cooperatives department to approach the Sindh High Court chief justice for the establishment of a special court for this purpose.

UPSP unit

The Sindh cabinet, keeping in view the performance of the Directorate of Urban Policy and Strategic Planning Unit, approved it as an attached department of the Planning and Development Board with a budget of Rs143.618 million.

The Directorate of Urban Policy and Strategic Planning is responsible for providing technical support with regard to province-wide urban regional planning and development within a short-, medium- and long-term framework by means of preparation of policies, plans and studies.

Karachi-Wuhan sisterhood

The cabinet was told that the ambassador of Pakistan in China had informed the Sindh government that the provincial government of Hubei wished to establish a sister-province relationship between Sindh and Hubei province and a sister relationship between Karachi and Wuhan. The Wuhan administration has completed their internal procedure to name a prominent square on the riverbank of the Yangtze as Pakistan-China Friendship Square.

The cabinet was informed that the Karachi administration would also undertake procedures to name a prominent public square/road on a similar pattern as a special gesture of friendship on a reciprocal basis.

The cabinet also approved Sindh Workers Welfare Fund Rules, 2021.

Moreover, it accorded approval for the appointment of Zulfikar Ali as chief executive officer of the Sindh Modaraba Management Limited.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2021