KARACHI, Aug 11 The Sindh cabinet, which met here on Tuesday, approved a draft bill submitted by the health department seeking a ban on the use of disposable syringes in the province.

The meeting of the Sindh cabinet was held at the Sindh secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. The cabinet also gave its consent to two other draft bills related to public-private partnership and upgrade of the People's Medical College to a medical university.

A news release issued by Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed said that the cabinet approved the draft bill to impose a ban on the manufacture, sale and use of disposable syringes and instead encourage the manufacture, sale and use of auto-lock/auto-destructible syringes.

He said that the bill would soon be tabled in the assembly.

He hoped that the ban on disposable syringes would help in checking the spread of communicable diseases.

Public-private partnership bill

After the meeting of the cabinet, Information Minister Shazia Marri briefed reporters about the decisions taken in the cabinet's meeting.

She said that the cabinet also approved the Public-Private Partnership Draft Bill, which was submitted by the Sindh finance department.

She said that the draft bill had been prepared and approved to provide a legal framework for the proposed public-private partnership programme.

She cited examples of the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas dual carriageway and the tourist resorts at Gorakh, Keenjhar and Khirthar as some of the projects that would be covered under public-private partnerships.

In response to a question, she said that the programme would be carried out in collaboration with the local private sector while foreigners could also join it.

She said the cabinet also gave approval to amendments to the Purchase of Agriculture Produce Act, 1939 for the purpose of establishment and management of wholesale and bulk market by the private sector.

Ms Marri said the amendment to the Act would greatly benefit farmers and for this purpose some of the provisions had been removed while doing away with the role of middleman.

She said this would open up doors for farmers to supply their produce directly to markets without the intervention of middlemen.

Plan to upgrade PMC approved

The cabinet also approved a draft bill through which the government would upgrade the People's Medical College, Benazirabad (Nawabshah) into a medical university.

The information minister said that the cabinet also approved the upgrade of Taluka Hospital and Medical Institute Shahdadpur.

The cabinet, on the recommendation of the forestry department, approved bringing an additional 610 acres in Thatta district into the schedule of leasing of land for forestry growth.

In reply to a question regarding whether the cabinet took any initiative with regard to price control on essential commodities during Ramazan, she said that the CM held meetings with district coordination officers and the deputy district officer (revenue) of Sindh and warned them to curb price hikes to provide relief to people during Ramazan.

Thar coal exploration agreement

The cabinet also reviewed and approved in principle an agreement between the Sindh government and the Engro Power Company for Thar coal exploration and power generation under a joint venture.

Ms Marri said that the agreement would now go to the Thar Coal Energy Board for further action.

She said that in the past coal reserves remained unexplored and this government was going to explore them as the country needed electricity, development and employment opportunities.

Under the agreement, she said, the company would explore 6.5 million tonnes of coal annually and generate 600 to 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

She said the company would invest 1.1 billion dollars in mining and 2.2 billion dollars in power generation.

She said that work on an airport at Islamkot had started while pre-feasibility of laying of railway track was prepared.

The information minister said that the Sindh government had got prepared a scheme for supply of 250 cusecs of water up to Islamkot while Wapda was working on a 500-kV transmission line from Jamshoro to Thar.

She said the Sindh government and Engro partnership ratio will be at 4060.

Police, home dept appreciated

The information minister said that during the meeting the CM briefed the cabinet about the police action against Rehman Dakait and his accomplices and dilated upon his government's strict stance against criminal elements.

She said that the CM told his cabinet that the home department was fully focussing on the elimination of crimes.

She said that the CM told the meeting that in the past Lyari had remained a centre of crimes and the action taken there did not prove result-oriented. However, this time the action proved successful.

Ms Marri said that the home minister praised the police performance and reiterated the commitment of showing no leniency towards criminal elements.

The home minister said that there would be no compromise on the question of law and order, she added.

Replying to a question, she said that the cabinet unanimously praised the efforts of the police and the home department and particularly the steps taken for maintenance of law and order.

The information minister was asked about the authenticity of the alleged police encounter in which Rehman Dakait was killed. She, however, said that such impressions were always given by those who conspired against democracy while the fact was that strict action had to be taken to maintain law and order and to provide security to citizens. However, if anyone brought such a thing in writing, the government would certainly look into it, she added.

Meanwhile, the Sindh cabinet strongly condemned the Gojra incident and observed a two-minute silence for all those who lost lives in the incident.—APP/PPI