Woman legislator of PML-F, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, contended in an adjournment motion that the Sindh government's concerned department has facilitated influential people to evade tax by tempering software. She said that an inquiry report in this connection was also not brought to fore.
"Unregistered vehicles and the vehicles with fake registration continue to ply on roads unchecked," she said. However, she failed to get her motion admissible in the house for deliberations since Sindh Senior Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Khuhro, the heavyweight of the ruling PPP, opposed it. Khuhro argued that the motion has raised more issues than one, which is against the rules. He said that the government has taken notice of the irregularities in the department and suspended four of its officials.
During the questions and answers session, Khuhro, who also holds charge of the Sindh Food Department, said that the government will soon make the Sindh Food Authority functional to check quality of the edible and palatable products. He said that the government has completed the process for making rules and regulations under the Food Authority Act 2016, which is now being reviewed by the Sindh Law Department.
The court's suo motu notice on soaring prices of milk and other consuming items is lawful, he said, adding that court can take the notice. He tried to brush aside the negative impression on substandard food sales in the province.
Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said that concerned departments of other provinces are acting against the sales of poor quality edible products but such action is missing in Sindh.
Khuhro said that after approval of rules for the authority, the department will begin its legal functions to clamp down on the sellers of adulterated items. He said that the department has removed nine officials from jobs on corruption charges while four were suspended. In the last two years, the department has not recruited new staff.
He said 400 posts in the Food Department are lying vacant, for which hundreds of thousands of applications were sent to the government. He said private sector has to come forward with job opportunities to share the government's burden to reduce unemployment. "The government alone cannot provide jobs to all," Khuhro said.
Responding to a call-attention notice of PML-F's parliamentary leader, Nand Kumar, Sindh Health Minister, Dr Sikandar Mandhro said that there are several reasons and not one exclusively behind the early deaths of children in Thar. Kumar said that over 300 children died in Thar over the past few months. "Three died just in a day," he said, questioning the government action to protect the children from deaths due to malnutrition.
Dr Mandhro said that there is a need to focus on the health of mothers. He said that the early marriage trend is common in Thar. He said that the birth rate is higher in the region, due to which weak babies are born. He said that poor health of mothers is cardinal reason for the early demise of children because they lack basic nutrition.
The house adopted two resolutions to condemn PTI chairman Imran Khan and his ally Sheikh Rashid because they had cursed the parliament. The resolutions came from PPP's Ghazal Sial and MQM's Dr Zafar Ahmed Kamali. At the end, the assembly was prorogued.