Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Friday that his government realised very well that human development was the key to accelerate economic growth.

He was speaking at a meeting with the Wold Bank mission that was on a visit of Sindh from Feb 19 to 23, to explore options for improving development outcomes in the province.

The mission was led by Sameera Maziad Al Tuwaijri, the lead health specialist and team leader, World Bank. Other members of the mission were Cristine Isabel Panasco Santo, the program leader; Naoko Ohno, the senior operations officer; Tayyeb Masud, the senior health specialist; Shakil Ahmed, the senior economist; Sohail Abbasi, the senior social protection specialist; Sarah Masale, the deputy country director, UNFPA; Dr. Yasmim Qazi of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; and Dr. Shabir Chandio and Dr. Dileep Kumar, USAID. Dr. Talib Lashari, the technical advisor PWD, was coordinating with the mission on behalf of the Sindh government.

The mission held the concluding meeting with Murad Ali Shah at the CM House. It appreciated the high level of political commitment in Sindh for human development specially in terms of implementing the Pakistan’s international Commitment on Family Planning (FP) 2020, said a press release issued by the provincial government.

It said that the mission particularly noted that Sindh was the first province to develop the Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) to achieve the goals of FP 2020. In this regard, Sindh will increase its Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) from 30 percent in 2015 to 45 percent in 2020.

Besides, the mission was satisfied at the completion of the population policy by the

Population Welfare Department. In the meeting on Friday, it emphasised the need for accelerated economic growth, for which it was suggested that human development should be considered as the key. ln this regard, birth spacing, girls education, youth involvement, women empowerment were identified as the critical areas.

The mission presented policy options for accelerated progress including family planning. The recommendations included institutional reforms in short, medium and long term.

The mission appreciated the work of Sindh FP 2020 Working Group/T ask Force and recommended that such a multi-sectoral forum may be further strengthened to address issues of women empowerment, gender equalities, social determinants of health and stream-lining the service delivery.

The recommendations also included implementation mechanisms, and monitoring and evaluation and the ?nancing of new interventions. Earlier, the World Bank Mission had held meetings with Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, MNA and Chair Sindh FP-2020 Working Group/Task Force; Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Provisional Technical Coordinator, Oversight Cell; Shireeri Narejo, Secretary Planning and Development; Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho Secretary Health; Mr. Laeeq Ahmed, Secretary Population Welfare Department; Dr. Shahab Qamar, Special Secretary Finance; and Mr. Raheem Shaikh, Special Secretary to Chief Minster. The mission also visited Aga Khan University and some NGOs to assess their role in population welfare sector.

Separately, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Friday that under a pre-planned conspiracy Pakistan Textile City Limited (PTC) and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) were being destroyed so that its industry could be shifted to somewhere else in the country, but we would not allow the conspiracy to prevail.

The Chief Minister said this while meeting a delegation of National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile led by its Chairman Mohammad Siraj Khan.

The Chairman NA Standing Committee and its members, Shazia Marri and others, told the Chief Minister that they [standing committee] have recommended revival of Pakistan Textile City (PTC) on January 4, 2018, and again on Friday they held a meeting at the FTC and reiterated their earlier stance of revival of the city.

Murad Ali Shah after detailed discussion categorically decided that the winding up of Textile City was not in the interest of the country and the province. The provincial government will support revival of the city so that employment opportunities for 80,000 workers can be created.

The Chief Minister said that the land of Textile city measuring 1250-acre belonged to Sindh government. The federal government formed a company which borrowed over Rs1 billion from the National Bank of Pakistan, and drained it out with ill planning. The provincial government owned 16 percent share in the city.

He said that the federal government took a simple and unrealistic decision of liquidating the company and then selling out its land to retire the loans. “How could you sell the land which does belong to you [fed govt],” he questioned and went on saying that the provincial government would not allow this broad day light robbery on the land of Sindh government. “We are ready to revive the city and pay the liability as per our share but rest of the liability would have to be borne by the federal government,” he said.

The Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary Sindh to write a letter to Barrister Zafrullah Khan, the Chairman Winding Up Committee for apprising the decision of the provincial government.

He also directed the Chief Secretary/Senior member Board of Revenue to write a letter to Port Qasim Authority and take up the issues of illegal allotment of Sindh government land to different parties and leasing out to Pakistan Textile City. “The land does not belong to you so how you are leasing it out to other parties?” he questioned.

Murad Ali Shah also said that the Sindh government would extend its full financial support to Textile City in case of proposed change in the financial and capital structure of the company.

It was also told to the nominee Director on the Board of Textile City as well as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company to communicate the stance of Sindh government to the Board of Director of the Company in their next board meeting.

The standing committee chairman and members said that they would direct Chairman PQA to sit with Chief Secretary/SMBR and Secretary Land Utilization Board of Revenue, Sindh to resolve the dispute of land.

Published in Daily Times, February  24^th 2018.