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Qaim justifies transfer of powers to control universities
Karachi
The chief minister on Thursday defended the decision to transfer powers to control the universities in Sindh to the government from the governor, saying it was aimed at bringing a drastic improvement to the condition of the universities and the quality of education.
Further amendments to the universities’ law were being considered to ensure that the objective was achieved, he said while presiding over a meeting at the CM House.
The meeting reviewed the progress of the committee constituted to deliberate on legal and administrative aspects for effective governance.
Shah mentioned that there were many old problems facing the universities, but there were some procedures that could help overcome them.
“We have to evolve such a strategy with legal cover that creates a congenial atmosphere not only for the academic faculty but students as well. The future of our nation depends upon the education and it is high time to standardise the education institutions once and for all.”
The committee held a discussion on a proper and effective piece of legislation for the composition of the syndicate, the selection of the vice chancellor, pro-vice chancellor, registrar, controller of examination and finance director through a transparent way.
The committee was assigned to give the final touches to proposals in this regard and submit a report immediately.
The chief minister directed the members of the committee to evolve a procedure that could resolve all bottlenecks which had been experienced in the past.
Meanwhile, the chief minister said a scheme for construction of the 15 stories New Sindh Secretariat Building was approved to provide a pleasant working environment, efficient disposal of official work and to facilitate the people who used to come to Karachi for their official work. He was talking to the Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani, who called on him at the Chief Minister House. Another scheme for residential facility to the MPAs was also under consideration, he said.
Cinemas exempted from tax on governor’s orders, PA told
Karachi
Sindh Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla told the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday that cinema houses in the province were exempted from entertainment tax only on the verbal instructions of the governor, saying that a formal notification to this effect had to be issued by the government after the house approved such exemption.
Chawla was replying to supplementary questions of MPAs during the question-hour session pertaining to the working and performance of his department. “No doubt, the declining cinema industry needs special concessions from the government for the revival of entertainment industry but it should be done in a more formal manner and not merely on the basis of verbal orders,” he said.
The minister said his department faced limitations in the collection of the entertainment tax owing to the tax exemption on the governor’s instructions and also due to the fact that themajority of the cinemas in the city happened to be located in cantonment areas where cantonment boards received the tax.
To another query regarding the unchecked and illegal sale and service of liquor by restaurants, he said only five-star hotels of the city were authorised and licensed to procure Pakistani-brewed liquor and serve it to only foreigners.
Khurrum Sher Zaman of the PTI complained that various restaurants in Defence and Clifton have been brazenly serving liquor to their customers and no government authority was checking this flourishing illegal and immoral activity.
MQM deputy parliamentary leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan said an adjournment motion should be moved in the house since it was first reported in the house that prostitutes were spotted on every other nook and corner of Defence and Clifton every evening.
