KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Friday informed that the Kotri Barrage had been facing a constant water scarcity, and the K-IV project, aimed at enhancing water supply to Karachi, would also require allocations from alternative sources.

Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro was making a statement on the floor of the house and answering members’ written and verbal queries during the Question Hour.

He attributed the chronic shortage at the barrage to inadequate allocations to the province, leaving an insufficient volume for downstream areas. He said that at least one million cusecs should flow downstream Kotri but due to this shortage, the establishment of new water reservoirs was also not possible.

The assembly passed the ‘Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Amendment Bill’, the ‘Sindh Registration Amendment Bill 2026’ and the ‘Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Amendment Bill, presented by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar.

The Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Act, 2017 was enacted to generate revenue for the development and maintenance of provincial infrastructure.

However, he said, over time, people, including importers, had accumulated outstanding or disputed liabilities under the Act, resulting in prolonged litigation, uncertainty in revenue collection and administrative inefficiencies.

He said that Sindh was not getting any benefit from the Infrastructure Cess as over 600 cases were pending disposal in the courts. “We have taken all traders into confidence on this issue,” he said adding that they had been urged to withdraw their cases.

He said that the infrastructure cess in Sindh was lesser than in Punjab.

Giving an insight of the amended bill, Excise Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that it was a longstanding demand of the business community to reduce the infrastructure cess. “Due to cess, factories were shifting to Punjab,” he said, adding that no cess would be imposed on future exports.

During the proceedings, the ‘Provincial Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill’ was also passed after presentation of the relevant standing committee’s report.

Call attention notice

Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, responding to a call attention notice, maintained that salaries of Sindh government employees are increased every year. Federal government employees or those of other provinces had not been getting as much increase, he said.

The call attention notice was tabled by MQM-P member Naseer Ahmed who said that the salaries of employees in different towns of Karachi were not increased despite official announcements.

Mr Shah conceded that such complaints were received from other towns, too. “We have spoken to the chief minister and hope that the issue will be resolved soon,” he stated.

Earlier, the house rejected an adjournment motion by tabled by MQM-P lawmaker Amir Siddiqui, who called for the restoration of traffic movement along University Road.

Opposing the motion as inadmissible, the law minister said that the flow was limited to facilitate the developmental work being carried out along the road.

Later, the house was adjourned to Monday.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2026