KARACHI, March 26: Sindh chief minister Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar has said that growing population is a big problem and the Sindh government, particularly its population Welfare department, is playing a significant role on this front.

Presiding over a meeting at his office Friday, the chief minister said that people were being provided guidance at the centres of population welfare department throughout Sindh. The department has launched a number of schemes, he said.

On the occasion, Sindh minister for population welfare Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh and minister for women development, Dr Saeeda Malik, apprised the CM about the performance of their respective departments.

In a meeting with the Sindh minister for communications, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, at Chief Minister House here on Friday, Mr Mahar said that beside repair and expansion of existing roads, new roads are also being constructed which, on completion, would benefit the people of Sindh.

He said that Rs720 million were being spent on 52 roads during the current fiscal while headway had been made for construction of a road from Ali Bandar to Thar with the federal government's assistance and work would start soon.

He informed that work on Islamkot to Thar Coal field road is going on apace while district governments too have initiated a number of schemes. The CM said that government's full effort is to maintain quality in road construction and complete all schemes in time.

He said that importance was being given to construction of farm to market roads. He noted that Sindh's economy will witness a revolutionary change after the completion of coastal highway and areas which suffered ignorance in the past would witness a new era of prosperity.

On this occasion, the communications minister submitted a detailed report about his department's performance. Later, the chief minister's advisor Ghulam Rasool Unnar, MPAs Dr Manzoor Leghari, Abdul Razaq Rahmoon and CM's special assistant Dr Sultana Ibrahim also called on the Chief Minister and briefed him about the problems of their respective areas.

The CM said that present government wants to serve the cause of people without any discrimination and in this regard suggestions from elected representatives would be given due importance.

INQUIRY: Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar has taken notice of murder of a seven-year old child in Naushahro Feroz a few days back and ordered an inquiry into the gruesome act.