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LARKANA, Jan 15: Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar has promised to provide Rs1.2 billion to complete ongoing uplift works and meet requirements of the three-year development plan of the district.
This was said by District Nazim Khurshid Ahmad Junejo while speaking at a news conference here on Thursday. He said the priority was to get restarted the schemes of the Khushhal Pakistan Programme that had been left halfway.
The Nazim said Mr Mahar had also promised the release of the lapsed amount. He said by the end of year 2003, 554 development schemes, approved by the district development working party, were under execution for which Rs827.088 million was allocated.
He said the government had released Rs513.369 million and hoped that the rest of the amount would be released soon. The Nazim said the development schemes were being executed under the Drought Emergency Relief Assistance programme and the KPP-III. For the KPP-IV, Rs31.92 million was required to be re-validated and the matter was lying with the finance department, he added.
He said out of Rs44.464 million allocated for the Education Sector Reform programme, Rs14.366 million was yet to be released. Responding to questions regarding the deteriorating law and order situation, the Nazim said 300 police pickets had been set up in Larkana at Indus Highway and flood protective bund areas to curb criminal activities.
MQM: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain will address a gathering by telephone here on Friday, said party leader Ayaz Sariyo.
PRISONS FOR WOMEN: Sindh Minister for Women Development Dr Saeeda Malik has said that the condition of prisoners in the women jail needs immediate attention.
Speaking at a seminar titled Role of Madr-i-Millat in Women Empowerment, she said that she noted the detrimental condition prevailing in the jail during a recent visit and has urged non- government organizations to help lessen the plight of the imprisoned women.
Rejecting the kind of freedom enjoyed by Western women, she said that "we need freedom" in line with the injunctions of the Holy Quran. She said the women of Pakistan wanted to work shoulder-to- shoulder with men as the Madr-i-Millat had stood by her brother, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The minister observed that without giving due rights to women, development carried no weight. Terming Sindh the land of Sufis, she remarked that Larkana eclipsed other parts of the province in awareness.
Dr Malik said that two development projects would begin in the province soon - one in Interior Sindh and the other in Karachi and added that the center in Larkana would assist women of remote areas and encourage cottage industry. District Nazim Khursheed Junejo, DCO Dr Baddaruddin Ujjan and Women Development secretary Nisar Ahmed Siddiki also spoke on the occasion.
