Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that his government is framing an effective policy to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 and to encash opportunities in the post-COVID world.
“Post-COVID international scenario has lowered risk outlook for Pakistan and CPEC opportunities have made Sindh a better destination promising healthy returns on investment, ease of doing business and high impact sustainable business growth.”
This, he said on Tuesday while addressing 2022-member participants of National Defence University (NDU) course on National Security & War Course-2022, led by Major General Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan here at Banquet Hall, CM House.
The participants include Pakistan armed forces, 23 civil servants and a large number of senior military officers from 15 different countries.
Murad Ali Shah, talking about terrorism said that the overall law and order situation in the province was satisfactory, however, the fast changing regional security environment required the law enforcement agencies operating in the Sindh to be extra vigilant to ensure peace and stability.
He added that a 20 Points National Action Plan (NAP) for countering terrorism and extremism was chalked out in All Parties Conference in 2014.
The CM said that his government was actively implementing NAP points under the Provincial Apex Committee framework.
“The Government of Sindh has conducted 26th meetings of Apex Committee with tangible outcomes such as Karachi Operation taken to logical end and now, Karachi is by and large a peaceful city,” he said and added Karachi has hosted many international and domestic cricket tournaments including the PSL.
Narcotics & Arms proliferation: The CM said that Karachi was a lucrative place for illicit drug market being a mega city as well as an international conduit.
“Narcotics have indirectly been involved in terror financing,” he said and added that the better coordination was required among intelligence, military, LEAs and Provincial governments in order to bring this menace to an end.
He said that proliferation of sophisticated weapons also needed to be monitored, therefore he has directed all the concerned agencies to continue patrolling at unfrequented routes is a formidable challenge
Talking about Illegal Immigrants, the CM said that Karachi attracted illegal immigrants especially from Afghanistan, Burma, Bangladesh and other countries.
“Pakistan is not a signatory to UN Convention on Refugees yet it is home to more than 1.44 million registered Afghan Refugees (UNHCR),” he said and added statistics shared by Commissioner for Afghan Refugees in Sindh are as follows:67,028 Afghanis have proof of Registration, 71,429 Afghan citizens are Card-holders, and 400,000 are yet to be registered.
The CM said that mass migration of Afghan nationals was anticipated in Pakistan after the change in regime in Afghanistan.
“Sindh has been most affected by the influx of Afghan nationals over the last four decades because of which, inter alia, there has been deterioration in law and order and other internal disturbances from time to time.
Mr Shah said that Pakistan’s border management system must also be improved to control the unauthorized influx of foreign nationals and urged the international community must ‘do more’ to house and support Afghan refugees.
Talking about Sindh Government’s Interventions, Murad Ali Shah said that Karachi Operation was in 2013. Pakistan Rangers were deployed and CTD was established.
The CM said that the budget of Sindh police was increased from Rs 51 billion in 2013 to Rs 106 billion in 2021.
“We have established a Special Security Unit, purchased arms and ammunition and vehicles in large numbers,” he said and added that new Police law was legislated in 2019 and was given complete operational autonomy to police.
The CM said that the emergence of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) also known as Deash in Afghanistan was a threat to regional security.
“The uprising in Occupied Kashmir, and the fierce resistance to it by Indian government including India’s acrimony towards Pakistan keeps us alert all the time,” he said and added Pakistan has been a victim of cyber-attacks for number of times in the past and termed it a relatively a new threat which was evolving not only for states but also for private sector.
