This was stated by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro at a joint press conference with Advisor to CM on Information Jameel Soomro here at New Sindh Secretariat Building. The minister said that a detailed presentation was given to the cabinet by a delegation of project sponsors, Al-Abbas Group, to build the plant in 24 months. He said a 10-day deadline was set for the group for submission of project report that would be examined technically and then tabled in the next cabinet meeting on March 25 for approval. Soomro said that when cleared by the cabinet, the provincial government would sign a formal agreement with the group.
According to the minister, if the group had not been given a deadline, the project might have gone in the backburner, adding that an agreement had already been reached with Engro Power on public-private basis. He said the group had assured the government of bringing state-of-the-art machinery, employing permanently at least 1000 engineers and technical personnel, besides hiring some 2,500 youth on contract basis.
About power tariff, the minister said that things in this regard were almost finalised. Soomro said the cabinet had given nod to the Sindh Shops and Establishment Security Bill-2010 which would be sent to Provincial Assembly for legislation. About the fate of LG system, he said that coalition partners were negotiating for an "agreed formula" and bringing a uniform law on future local government setup. He said the partners were discussing every point and article of the issues on agenda.
Rejecting allegations of political victimisation, the minister said that his department had prepared the outline of the bill. He said any activist of any political party was neither jailed nor made missing under the notion of political victimisation. The minister assured the media of implementing the apex court's decision in letter and spirit with regard to opening of the cases under National Reconciliation Ordinance. This year, the crime ratio had been better than that of the previous two years, he said, adding that the government had revised compensation amount for the martyred police officers to Rs 2 million.