KARACHI, Aug 16: Sindh governor Mohammadmian Soomro lauded the performance of Karachi Medical and Dental College and said education standards must meet quality to beat competitors, and the only way to achieve excellence was that principals of merit and transparency must be followed.

He was speaking at the stone-laying ceremony of phase-II of Karachi Medical and Dental College here on Friday at its new campus site in North Nazimabad, Karachi.

He said that province had been faced with numerous problems but its root cause was improper financial management and lack of proper monitoring and now it was the responsibility of respective district governments to ensure judicious utilization of funds.

The governor spoke about improvement in financial position of the province and said Sindh’s resources have recorded a satisfactory improvement as a result of steps taken for merit, transparency, good governance and better financial discipline.

He pointed out that new minerals reserves have been found in the province and the royalty to be earned on this count will reach the five billion rupee mark in the next two years.

He said efforts were being made to fully benefit from the coal reserves in Thar which would result in developing new sources of energy besides savings of foreign exchange.

The governor informed that Sindh is the first province which is being provided a loan of Rs 100 billion by the World Bank on just one percent service charge.

He said that Sindh province, as the World Bank acknowledged, has already complied with all the conditions and, therefore, this amount will be available in the coming years and will be repayable in 30 years which is a big facility.

Mohammedmian said that with this amount, the government would repay its debts obtained at 17 per cent markup, and, thus, the resources of the province could be saved.

He told the gathering that government’s efforts are to spend maximum resources on social sector while steps were being taken for the success of mission for bringing an improvement in the quality of life of common man.

“Our direction is right and so is our speed as a result of which better results are expected”.

Mr Soomro said that in view of Karachi’s peculiar conditions, special attention was being paid to its problems while steps were in the offing in respect of devolution process as a result of which more resources would be made available to local governments.

Responding to requests by the Nazim, the DCO seeking release of funds for the college and other major hospitals, the governor said he would look into the matter.

He said that the financial position in Karachi will definitely improve after announcement of NFC and provincial award and the implementation of GST. He, however, suggested that land renewal would also bring major earnings for the city government.

Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan lauded sincere efforts of governor in resolving the problems of Karachi and said that Karachi being the largest city of Pakistan was growing at the rate of six per cent per annum. Therefore, more work was required to meet the needs of city.

Nazim Karachi reiterated his demand for levying sea cess in Karachi, at the rate of one per cent on all imports and said though the port is situated in Karachi and whole of Pakistan was benefiting from it, Karachi city was only facilitating the port activity in different ways without getting anything out of it.

He said out of city government’s Rs20 billion budget,31 per cent had been allocated for education sector and 19 per cent for health which are the prime needs for human development in any society.

He rebuffed criticism over the allocation of funds for Quran and Sunnah academy, Fahm-ul-Quran programme and the model mosque and said that Pakistan was made in name of Islam and it was the duty of the city government to impart knowledge of principals of Islam among the masses, which is also a part of human development.

DCO Karachi Shafiqur Rehman Paracha and KMDC principal Prof Sadia Karim spoke about the problems faced by the college.—PPI/APP