KARACHI – Provincial lawmakers on Thursday called on the government to initiate an across-the-board action against criminals and saboteurs in the metropolis.Speaking on a point of order in the Sindh Assembly, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of the PML-F said, “We have reservations over the recent operation in Lyari.” She asked the government to inform the House that what objectives were achieved in the Lyari operation and how many criminals were arrested. She, however, regretted that innocent people were killed in the operation. The PML-F leader pointed out that before the action in Lyari, the government had announced that similar actions would be carried out in other city areas, but that did not happen. She said that although the portfolio for Home was with the chief minister, he did not turn up to inform the House on the law and order situation. She also condemned the attack on Love Sindh Rally, and questioned that why pro-Muhajir province rallies were not stopped. On his turn, Sohail Yousaf Khan of the MQM raised the issue of financial crisis of the WASA Hyderabad which, according to him, was collapsing due to the lack in subsidy by the provincial government. He said that at present around WASA 3,000 employees were on strike against the non-payment of five-month salaries. He cautioned that the sewage system of Hyderabad might collapse due to the financial crisis.Haji Munwar Abbasi of the PPP raised the issue of lack of water in Sukkur barrage which, according to him, had delayed crop sowing on the left side of Indus.Meanwhile, during the question-hour session, Sindh Minister for Agriculture Ali Nawaz Shah informed the House that prices of fertilisers had been increased because of the recent hike in gas and power prices. He said his department had, through a letter, asked the Centre for reduction in GST on fertiliser and allocation of subsidy in the federal budget.As lawmakers did not ask supplementary questions, the question-hour session was disposed of within fifteen minutes.Meanwhile, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA Sindh), Peoples Doctor Forum (PDF) and Sindh Doctors Welfare Association (SDWA) have expressed their concern about alleged unfair posting orders issued by S&G.  Dr Samrina Hashmi (President PA-Sindh), Dr Razzak Shiekh (Gen Secretary, PDF-Sindh) and Dr Mujtaba Memon (President of SDWA) in a joint statement on Thursday said 159 doctors promoted from BPS 18 to BPS 19, after a long wait of 19 years, this June only were now being posted to remote parts of the province. It was mentioned that out of these 159 doctors, no less than 55, including 41 men and 14 women, were transferred out of Karachi at places that were not even related to their domicile.The rest of 104 were thrown out of their settled districts to other districts for example from Dadu to Thatta, Jamshoro to Larkana, Larkana to Mirpurkhas, Sanghar to Khanpur etc, said the representatives of the doctors’ community. The said that the long awaited promotion orders for these were issued on June four this year, while these they were given promotions after 19 years through a board, in July 2011. “These promotions were notified in March 2012, and finally actualized in June 2012 almost after a year of the Board,” said Dr.  Hashmi.It was alleged that doctors pertaining to same group, but promoted prior to their colleagues whose notification for promotion was delayed due to reasons known to concerned authorities only, were being made easy victims as many of their colleagues were previously provided with the opportunity to make use of right contacts managed to get their posting orders changed.They alleged that reportedly many of the doctors were also forced to grease the palm of the staff and paid Rs25,000 for one change. The PMA, PDF and SDWA leaders have urged the authorities to take stock of the situation and attend to the genuine grievances of the doctors.

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