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Sindh to challenge NAB law changes giving C-class jail facilities to inmates

By Our Correspondent
November 14, 2019

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has announced that he will challenge the recent amendment to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law, under which anyone accused of embezzlement of Rs50 million or more would be given C-class jail facilities.

He said the federal government was encroaching upon the jurisdiction of the provincial governments by amending the NAB Ordinance 1999 to assign C-class jail facilities to those accused of Rs50 million embezzlement.

“This is a purely jail manual matter and the federal government is not authorised to make such an amendment, therefore, the provincial government has decided to challenge it in the court of law.”

The CM stated this while talking to newsmen on Wednesday at Baradari where he attended the handing-over ceremony of 20 suction and high-pressure jetting machines to the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB). He was of the view that jails come under the jurisdiction of the provincial governments.

To a query about the K-IV project, the CM said the Pakistan Peoples Party government in Sindh was accused of changing alignment of the project but now it had been proved that the provincial government had played no role in this regard. “The project will definitely see the light of the day for which I am working hard,” he said, adding that the S-III sewerage project would also be completed.

Citing the case of the Jamshoro-Sehwan dual carriageway project, the CM said he had already given Rs7 billion of its share to the federal government but in spite of that the work on the road was going on at a snail’s pace.

He said the federal government had destroyed the economy of the country, due to which the poor could not afford square meals. The prices of vegetables have gone up and the Centre’s representatives are claiming that tomatoes were available for Rs17 per kilogramme, the CM said.

To a question about the governor, he said if he was living at the Governor House, it was a good thing. “It is a Governor House and the governor has every right to stay there,” he said, adding that as far as bulldozing the walls of the Governor House was concerned, his government would never allow that.

Water reforms

Earlier, Shah while addressing the handing-over ceremony of 20 machine-mounted vehicles, including 10 suction and 10 high-pressure jetting machines, said that his government was working to improve water and sewerage system in Karachi.

He said at a cost of Rs900 million, 20 vehicles mounted with 10 suction and 10 jetting machines had been purchased and another 37 old suction and jetting machines were being overhauled. The under-repair machinery and vehicles would be ready by June 2020, he added.

He informed the ceremony that a new pumping station to provide 100 million gallons of water to the city was almost complete at a cost of Rs1.63 billion and it would be inaugurated in December. He added that the 50-year-old Dhabeji pumping station was also being upgraded for Rs1.23 billion.

The CM said a 24-inch-diameter pipeline was being laid to provide water to Baldia Town at a cost of Rs400 million. He added that another scheme to improve water and sewerage system in the city for Rs200 million was under way and over 60 per cent work had been completed on it.

To provide water to Lyari, Shah said a 23-inch-diameter line was being laid from Sindhi Hotel to Bakra Piri for Rs717 million. He claimed that the scheme would resolve water problems of Lyari.

He said another scheme of Rs300 million had been approved to provide water to the residents of Defence and Qayyumabad and work on it would be started within three months. He said to resolve water and sewerage issues of the entire city, a Rs90 million scheme had also been approved and it would be started by the end of December.

The CM maintained that the Rs95 million scheme to provide water to the Mehmoodabad, Chanesar Goth and Azam Basti areas had been completed by 90 per cent. The CM handed over the keys of vehicles to the KWSB managing director.