The Sindh cabinet, which met here under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, on Tuesday at New Secretariat, decided to re-vegetate degraded wetlands to provide full spectrum of wetlands ecosystem services for benefit of poverty-stricken coastal communities through Public Private Partnership (PPP) by investing $25 million.
The cabinet meeting was attended by all provincial ministers, advisors, acting chief secretary Mohammad Waseem and other officers.
Blue Carbon: Minister Forest & Wildlife, Nasir Shah, briefing the cabinet, said that Blue Carbon is the carbon stored and sequestered in costal ecosystem such as mangrove forests, sea grass meadows, intertidal salt-marshes or wetlands. These valuable ecosystems hold vast carbon reservoir; they sequester atmospheric CO2 through primary production, and then deposit it in their sediment.
The cabinet was told that the blue carbon was found in the soils or sediments beneath the vegetation. These degraded wetlands, if properly re-vegetated have the potential to provide full-spectrum of wetlands ecosystem services for the benefit of poverty-stricken coastal communities and the provincial government.
Secretary Forest Rahim Soomro said that Public Private Partnership was the only way forward for rehabilitation and restoring these vast chunks of degraded wetlands in the Indus Delta area. At this, the chief minister said that budgetary and techno-managerial constraints in re-vegetating those areas could be addressed through private sector partnership. He directed the forest department to start work through PPP mode.
Shah said that a private firm had already shown their interest. They have committed to develop and sustainably manage the wetlands in due recognition of their social, economic and ecologic significance, including carbon sequestration and storage.
The private firm has proposed a Sindh Blue Carbon Initiative (SCBI) said to be implemented over 0.20 to 0.25 million hectares of Indus Delta land falling in Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts. The proposed project period is 60 years which may be extendable upto 100 years. The project would cost around $25 million.
Trophy Hunting: The cabinet also approved trophy hunting. In trophy hunting animals sought as trophies have large weapons such as horns, antlers or tusks. Consequently, trophies so counted are invariably old age males, and the animals most frequently considered as trophy species are the ungulates.
The Minister Forest told the cabinet that Trophy Hunting was not carried out at protected areas such as National Parks & Wildlife Sanctuaries but only at Game reserves, private lands & state lands. The chief minister said that it was not an attempt to generate revenue but to manage, conserve and protect wildlife & their habituates.
The cabinet was informed that in early 199s, community-based trophy hunting started in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. This attracted a large number of international hunters to Pakistan.
It was pointed out that in the non-protected areas, the population of Ibex has been counted at 797 at different areas, including Surjan/Duban, Sumbak Game Reserve, Eri Game, Hothiyano, Pachran and Uth Palan.
The minister told the chief minister that five Urial had been allowed for trophy at a fee of $14,000 each (only for foreigners) , 20 Sindh Ibex, including 15 by foreigners at a fee of $5600 each and 5 Ibex by Pakistani national at a fee of $300,000 each.
Jetties regularization: Fisheries Minister Bari Pitafi told the cabinet that there were 33 illegal jetties, including 12 in Ibrahim Hyderi, five at Mauripur, six at Thatta, Badin, Sakro and Gharo and 10 Balochistan Coast Belt. These jetties were being managed by influential people and charging Rs100 to Rs5000 from every boat. Thus they were causing around Rs4 to 5 billion loss to the government.
The chief minister directed the fisheries department to make necessary arrangements for installation of Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) in phases.
Necessary amendment was made to regularize the illegally developed jetties so that they could be managed by the government instead of private people.
PTDC Assets: The Sindh cabinet observed that after the passage of 18thConstitutional amendment the assets of PTDC should have been devolved automatically. The PTDC has an 8-kanal dilapidated condition Motel at Hawksbay, 32 acres land at Sukkur, 9 Kanal at Hyderabad, Tourism Faciulitation Center Karachi, Motel at Moen-jo-Daro, Tourism Information Centre Thatta and 6 Kaanal land at Bambhore.
The cabinet decided to write a letter to the federal government to transfer the assets and meanwhile maintenance of these assets would be looked after by the provincial government.
Safety Rules: The Minister Labour Saeed Ghani presented draft Sindh Occupational Safety & Health Rules, 2019 framed under the act of 2018. The rules have 26 sections in which workers, labourers and agricultural workers have included. The employers have been bound to provide neat and clean atmosphere in their establishments and adopting safe and security measures, including installation of illuminations, ventilation, maintenance eof temperature, noice control, dust control etc.
The cabinet approved the rules and directed labour department to implement them in true letter and spirit. Exemption of fees: Minister Labour Saeed Ghani requested the cabinet to exempt all the shops and other commercial establishments from registration fee under Ease of Doing Business Reforms.
The cabinet discussed and decided to exempt all the shops and such other commercial establishments from registration fee all over Sindh. However, the shops would have to get them registered through business portal free of cost.
Blood banks: The health department told the cabinet that Regional Blood Centre (RBC) Jamshoro was being operated by Indus Hospital with attached seven Blood Banks, LUMS Hospital Branch Hyderabad, DHQ Matiari, Civil Hospital Thatta, Civil Hospital Badin, Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas, Civil Hospital Tharparkar, and Civil Hospital Jamshoro.
The Indus Hospital performed a gap analysis wherein it was found that the total requirement of all the attached hospital-based blood banks was 70,000 bags. This would cause an impact of RS8.2 billion in next 10 years.
The cabinet approved the proposal and gave go ahead signal to the Indus hospital.
The chief minister in his opening remarks said that it was the first cabinet meeting of new year 2020 and it would turn to be year of development, peace and prosperity.
The Sindh cabinet also confirmed Professor Mujeebuddin Memon’s appointment as Vice Chancellor Tandojam University, Saeed Ghani said. He said that the court had declared Professor Mujibuddin Memon’s appointment by Sindh Government as Vice Chancellor Tandojam University illegal because of the fact that it had not been confirmed by the cabinet, but it had now been verified.
