KARACHI: Lawmakers finally gave bureaucrats the go-ahead to lead the intermediate and secondary education boards in the province as the Sindh Assembly adopted the controversial bill with a majority vote on Friday.

The Sindh Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill, tabled in the assembly on Jan 27, 2025, contained one of the most controversial provisions that enables the provincial government to appoint any senior civil servant as the chairman of an educational board.

The Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) lone member Muhammad Farooq was the only one to voice concern over the amended law but he was not allowed by the chair to put forward his reservation or objection to the bill.

He said that he had moved an amendment to the bill and wished to speak on it.

Controversial bill approved with majority vote

Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister said that the amendment moved by the JI member had been rejected by the standing committee that approved the amended bill after deliberations.

As per the new law, chairman of an educational board would be appointed by the chief minister or his nominee either through direct recruitment process or by transfer from among the cadre officers of BPS-19/20.

Besides the appointment of the boards’ chairmen, the bill also envisaged changes in the procedure for appointing heads, examination directors and secretaries of the education boards across the province.

The authority to appoint members to the education boards and the steering committee will also rest with the chief minister.

Call attention notices

The acute water shortage once again took centre stage in the house with opposition members coming down heavily on the provincial government for its failure to ensure smooth supply in Karachi.

In his call attention notice, MQM-P member from Malir, Shariq Jamal, said that the people of his constituency were facing severe hardships due to the sudden water crisis.

He alleged that water was being diverted from the supply lines of his constituency at the behest of a PPP member of the provincial assembly.

Similarly, MQM-P’s Aamir Siddiqui in his notice drew attention of the local government minister towards the persistent shortage of water in Jamshed Quarters.

Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC)-backed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) member Wajid Hussain said that the crisis had intensified in his constituency (PS-92) in Landhi.

He held the local government minister and K-Electric responsible for the serious water-related problems in Landhi and said people were desperate for water while the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation officials were illegally diverting the utility from residential areas to commercial ones.

He also deplored the absence of Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani in the house and said that he did not show up despite the fact that call attention notices on a serious issue like water were on the agenda of assembly business.

The SIC-PTI lawmakers also alleged that the water utility officials sold illegal connections with the connivance of police.

Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Qasim Soomro conceded that there was not sufficient water and supply lines in the city.

He said that there was also an acute shortage of water in the area where he lived. “We only look at the sky to see when water is coming,” he disappointedly said.

The parliamentary secretary asked the members of assembly to inform him of the name of the person who got the illegal connection and that action would be taken against him.

On a point of order, Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that he along with Energy Minister Syed Nasir Hussain had gone to China on an official visit.

The senior minister said that some memorandums of understanding had been signed in China and the provincial government was going to build EV recharging stations all over Karachi. “In the first phase, there will be a charging station for e-vehicles every 50 kilometres across Sindh,” he added.

He said that the world’s largest company manufacturing e-trucks, e-buses, e-cars and e-motorcycles was coming to set up an EV plant in Karachi.

“Those vehicles will be available here at twenty-five per cent of the price of the expensive vehicles we buy,” he said.

Later, the house was prorogued.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025