KARACHI, Aug 28: The Sindh Assembly, which is scheduled to meet after a day’s break on Friday, is likely to take up some legislation business as the introduction of a government bill pertaining to the Gorakh Hills Development Authority is on the order of the day.
Besides a question hour on “irrigation and power department” another important item on the agenda is election of the standing and other committees, which is carried over business from the last two sessions.
The issue was on the order of the day on Aug 28 session but had been adjourned on the suggestion of Minister for Bureau of Supplies and Prices Shoaib Bokhari keeping in view the absence of parliamentary party leaders of the ruling coalition Pir Mazharul Haq of the Pakistan People’s Party and Syed Sardar Ahmad of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
There is no mention of any adjournment motion on the order of the day. However, if any member manages to deposit his adjournment motion two hours prior to the scheduled time of resuming business at 9.30am, the motion can be taken up for consideration.
Since there is no formal item on the agenda, the chair is likely to call it a day by 2pm so that members and staff could offer their Friday prayers.
The parliamentary parties of the PPP, the MQM and the joint opposition are scheduled to meet in their respective chambers before going to the house and formulate their strategies.
As most of the ruling coalition partners and their leaderships appeared to be involved in the presidential election of the PPP-co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, which is scheduled for Sept 6, the proceeding of the house is expected to move smoothly without any fireworks.
The bill, which is the sixth item on the order of the day, is aimed at expediting the pace of the development work on the hill station that was identified in 1860 as a summer resort like Murree and Ziarat.
This project remained in the cold storage for one reason or the other till 1989 when the project was taken up on the executive orders of the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
According to Sindh Culture and Tourism Minister Sassui Palejo, with the establishment of the Gorakh Hills Development Authority the pace of development would accelerate and efforts would be made to complete the remaining work at the earliest.
She said that all possible steps would be taken to develop the summer resort on modern lines to attract tourists.
The summer resort project at the Gorakh Hills had been approved by the ECNEC, with 50 per cent funding from the federal authorities and 50 per cent from the provincial funds.
Around Rs390.825 million had been spent on the project till February 2008 out of which Rs583.359 million had been incurred on the development work in the first phase and Rs173.181 million on the provision of basic facilities like roads, electricity and water etc in the second phase.