KARACHI, Nov 23: The Sindh Assembly was on Tuesday informed that there was no proposal under consideration at the moment before the government to set up the 'Quick Reaction Force' in view of the soaring crime rate and law and order problem in the province. The statement was made by Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui in a written reply to Humera Alvani's question.

He also stated that Pakistan Motorway Police, deployed along the Super highway, was under the administrative control of the federal government and the amount collected by it against fines for violation of traffic rules was retained by the federal government. But maintaining law and order on Super Highway was the function of local police, he clarified while responding to a question by PPP's Nasreen Chandio.

Responding to some questions posed by Mr Ayaz Soomro about law and order, Mr Siddiqui informed the house that during the first six months of the current year, there were 93 cases of murder and six reported cases of kidnapping in Larkana district.

All the 99 cases mentioned in the part (a) of the question had been registered against 329 accused persons out of them 36 had been arrested, he added. The minister considered it 'excellent result', but stressed the need for more improvement.

Ms Sharfunnisa Leghari of the PPP wanted to know the names of those involved in the Rs70 million theft in Dadu Sugar Mills, and asked whether it was a fact that the FIR of the theft was lodged during March/April this year as a result of which some arrests were also made.

The home minister replied that on the complaint of the general manager of the mills, regarding theft of machinery and spare parts valued at around Rs5 million, FIR No.09/04 u/s 380,34 PPC, 14 HO was registered at the Rukkun police station on January 27 against 11 nominated accused. Out of them, seven were arrested and recovery was made but the remaining ones could not be traced out as yet, he added.