JAMSHORO, Nov 4: Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ibad Khan on Tuesday expressed his ignorance of any proposal being discussed at federal level for abolition of local government system and revival of old commissioner-ate system.
Talking to journalists at the nursing hostel of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), the governor said that a consultative process at the administrative and political level was required to reach a consensus decision about continuity or abolition of the present local government system.
“Well, I think there is no proposal being considered by federal government for abolition of present local government system,” he replied to a journalist cited statements of some ministers that old commissioner-ate system was likely to be revived in Sindh.
He said that nothing of that sort was happening as far as he knew and “a decision as to continuity or discontinuity of existing local bodies system will be taken with consensus.”
About Sindh chief minister’s reservations over admission policies of universities, Mr Khan said that he had an initial discussion with the chief minister and soon detailed discussions would follow to bring about overall improvement in education. “And if there is any problem we will look into it,” he said.
To a question about present government’s holding the outgoing regime responsible for the existing economic crisis, he said that “it’s a debatable point because so many indicators are involved in it. There are issues of micro and macro level as well as variables.
“Then there is global recession which also has its impacts. But reality is that economy is under pressure and we have to jointly extricate the country from it,” he said.
He said later during a visit to the institutes and departments constructed over the past five years at the Sindh University that given the economic crunch the country faced, efforts should be made to make everything sustainable and manageable in the universities.
He believed that that the universities had people who could give valuable inputs to the government to help it overcome the crisis. “I have asked all the vice chancellors to give proposals as to how could we manage and prioritise things in this situation,” he said.
“Enrolment in universities has increased considerably, which shows explicitly that there are opportunities in universities. Now one of our universities has appeared on the world map of 500 top universities and didn’t happen in the past,” he said.
The governor inaugurated Gymnastic Centre of the Centre of Health and Physical Education and a girls’ hostel and visited newly-constructed building of the Institute of Art and Design and its Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Gallery.
Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Dr Mazharul Haq Siddiqui who accompanied the governor during the visit pointed out to shortage of faculty in view of student-teacher ratio and new emerging sciences and disciplines introduced over the past six years. The university faced 70 per cent cut in quarterly grant and faced deficit of Rs247 million in 2008-09 budget. Since July, the university had received only Rs137 million against an expenditure of Rs385 million due to slow releases by the HEC, he said.