Sindh cabinet reserves seats for transvestites in local councils

Cabinet fixes sugarcane price at Rs302 per 40kg; green-lights purchase of 40 more buses for BRT

Chairing the provincial cabinet meeting at the CM House, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah made important decisions, including the fixation of sugarcane minimum price at Rs302 per 40kg for crop 2022-23, approval of reserved seats for members of the transgender community in the local councils and purchase of 40 more buses under Peoples Bus Service, Karachi.

All the provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, Chief Secretary Dr Mohammad Sohail Rajput, Chairman P&D Hassan Naqvi, PSCM Fayaz Jatoi, and other concerned officers attended the cabinet meeting.

Advisor to CM on Agriculture Manzoor Hussain Wassan told the cabinet that he had held a number of meetings with all the stakeholders, including growers and millers to develop a consensus for the fixation of new sugarcane prices. The stakeholders had their own points of view.

He said that the Punjab government had fixed Rs300 per 40 kg sugarcane price, therefore, he had suggested the cabinet to fix Rs302 per 40 kg for the crushing season 2022-23 starting from November 29, 2022.

The cabinet approved the fixation of the minimum price of sugarcane at Rs 302 per 40 kg and also fixed the quality premium rate at Rs0.50 (50 paisa) per 40 kg as approved by the federal government in 1989-99.

The provincial cabinet believing in the policy of equal rights for every segment of society approved reserved seats for transgenders in the local councils.

At the request of the Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, the provincial cabinet discussed the allocation of reserved seats for the local council for six categories. They include women, and youth members (at least one seat), labourers or farmers one seat, non-Muslim members one seat, persons with physical disabilities one seat, and transgender persons one seat.

The provincial cabinet on the request of Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon approved an amount of Rs1.7 billion for the purchase of 43 more 12-meter hybrid buses for the already operational Peoples Bus Service in the city.

A proposal of launching a Peoples Bus Service for tourist sites in the province also came under discussion. The cabinet directed Minister Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah to submit a written proposal so that buses from Karachi to major tourist spots such as Keenjhar Lake, different locations in Tharparkar, Ranikot Fort and other areas could be launched.

The Health Department presented an agenda item with the request to hand over the administrative control of Reduction of Stunning and Malnutrition to Peoples’ Primary Health Initiative (PPHI), Sindh.

Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho told the cabinet that PPHI had already initiated Nutrition Services in Dadu and Jamshoro districts while the Health Department was running the programme in 21 districts.

The cabinet approved the proposal and allowed the Health Department to hand over the programme to PPHI. In the current financial year, the Sindh government allocated Rs2.9 billion for the Reduction of Stunning and Malnutrition Programme.

The cabinet approved the procurement of 300,000 tons of wheat from PASCO so that the wheat requirement of the province could be met till the harvest of the new crop in early March.

The chief minister directed the food department to make necessary arrangements for the procurement of wheat, crop 2022-23 from early February so that the procurement target could be achieved.

The provincial cabinet on the request of the Social Welfare Minister Sajid Ahmed Jokhio approved the proposal to sign an agreement with ANF to run two Drug Rehabilitation Centers – Rehabilitation KMC Leprosy Hospital, Manghopir; and Sports and Youth Affairs, Malir Karachi.

The ANF is already providing free-of-cost services to the people of Karachi, Sukkur and Hyderabad with the support of the Sindh government.

Minister Labour Saeed Ghani told the meeting that the Baldia factory Fire incident occurred in November 2012. He added that the German Brand KiK Textilian contributed $1 million for relief for the family of deceased and injured workers and the compensation commission established by Sindh High Court under the Chairmanship of Rehmat Hussain Jaffery was assigned the work of disbursement of the funds.

The Sindh government through SESSI has been disbursing the amount of death and survival pension to the lawful survivors of the deceased workers of the factory.

The cabinet was told that the German firm KiK Textilian offered to provide a long-term compensation of $ 5.15 million, including a margin of $0.25 million to ILO to be distributed among the victims by way of a lifetime pension scheme through SESSI on a monthly basis.

Saeed Ghani told the cabinet that the ILO, Geneva wanted to transfer the fund to an insurance company (EFU Assurance Ltd.) as its payment agent.

The cabinet approved the request and allowed the labour department to sign an MOU with ILO to transfer the funds to the insurance company so that pension disbursement could be ensured from there.

Sindh Cabinet approved the Provisional Support Agreement to be signed with a private partner (Ms ZKB, developer) of Dhabeji Industrial Zone, a CPEC top Priority Project of the Sindh government.

It is worth mentioning here that the Sindh government has allotted 1530 acres for the development of the Dhabeji Industrial Zone. The zone would create 100000 direct and indirect jobs and would help boost exports through industrialization in Pakistan. The project is being executed by Sindh Economic Zones Management Company (SEZMC) under Public Private Partnership mode through a successful international bidding process.

Sindh Cabinet under the new local council arrangement approved handing over of 15 slums of District Central. These slums would be part of the towns.  The cabinet also decided to activate its Sindh Petroleum Company by appointing Asim Murtaza as its CEO.

Hanif Samoon is a senior journalist based at Thar/Badin and contributes reports from different districts of Sindh to Minute Mirror. He has won a number of awards, including the Agahi Award twice for his stories on health and child rights. He tweets @HanifSamoon1 and can be reached through email at [email protected]