KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the formation of curriculum under the 18th constitutional amendment is a provincial subject and the federal government wants to impose its unilaterally framed curriculum; this is why the Sindh government has declined to adopt it.
This he said while talking to the 29-member delegation of Punjab Assembly who called on him here at CM House. In the delegation 18 MPAs were from the PTI, six from PML-N, four from PPP.
To a question, the chief minister said that the majority of students in Sindh were receiving education in Sindhi medium. “Education in mother tongue is considered to be the most effective tool of teaching; therefore, our preference is to make curriculum accordingly,” he said and added his government has already worked hard on overhauling the curriculum.
Murad said that the federal government was trying to impose its curriculum unilaterally and we have already framed our own curriculum and would be improving it further with the passage of time.
To another question, Murad Ali Shah said that in the last census the population of Karachi was shown at 16 million which was wrong. He said therefore, he has been fighting the case of the megacity so that its accurate population could be counted to give it its due share from the national resources.
Replying to a question, Shah said that water shortage in the city was a genuine issue. “Karachi gets water from two sources- the Indus and the Hub. He said that as our rivers are facing water shortage the reliance on the Indus River has diminished, while the Hub Dam has a limited capacity of water storage. “Therefore, we have decided to tap seawater sources by installing desalination plants,” he said and added that the donor agencies have agreed to finance these projects.
Talking about law and order, he said that when the PPP came into power Karachi was declared as the 6th most dangerous city but then a vigorous clean-up operation was launched and the writ of the government was established. Now the same city of Karachi is at 136th rank in the crime index of the world.
We restored peace in the city first and then started reconstruction of its dilapidated infrastructure, Shah said and added, “We have reconstructed and widened Shahrah-e-Faisal and Tariq Road for the first time after the tenure of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “We have constructed a number of other roads, flyovers and underpasses and still have to do a lot of work,” he said.
He said that his government has made the NICVD, NICH and JPMC as best healthcare facilities. “Our NICVD and JPMC’s Cyberknife hospitals were providing best services free of cots- the NICVD is the only hospital in the region which does angiographies, angioplasties and bypasses free of cost, and Cyberknife at JPMC is providing treatment of cancer free of cost,” he said.
The Chief Minister invited the delegation to visit Thar and get personal experience to witness the work done by the Sindh government. “Now, Thar has become a power producing zone of the country and the credit goes to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto who had initiated coalmining and coal-fire power projects,” he said.
Shah appreciated the visit of the MPAs of Punjab and said that such visits would help to develop political coordination and exchange of views for strengthening democracy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021