The Sindh provincial cabinet has decided to protect the entire Karoonjhar region as cultural and heritage sites, forests, and a wildlife sanctuary/Ramsar Site, while designating the Khasar area for granite mining, pending clearance from the Forest & Wildlife Department. The decision was made during a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House on Thursday. Provincial ministers, advisors, Chief Secretary AsifHyder Shah, and other officials were present. The cabinet was briefed on a proposal initiated during the caretaker government to launch the Granite Excavation Project in Nagarparkar.
he Geological Survey of Pakistan’s 2015 report indicates approximately 14 billion metric tons of granite in Nagarparkar, spread over 11 locations. However, the Sindh High Court had banned excavation in Nagarparkar on October 16, 2023, due to the presence of cultural/heritage sites, forests, and a wildlife sanctuary/Ramsar Site. The Sindh government has since appealed to the Supreme Court, which emphasized considering wildlife, forest, environmental, and heritage interests in any mining policy. The Cabinet committee identified the Khasar Area, 25 km from Nagarparkar, with a potential granite excavation zone of 3.6 sq km, per the GSP Report 2015.
The area does not overlap with forest regions. The cabinet approved Khasar for granite mining, subject to clearance from the Forest & Wildlife Department. The cabinet approved a Rs. 3.84 billion grants-in-aid to the Patients’ Aid Foundation (PAF) for the procurement of medical equipment and utilities for a new 12-story, 532-bed medical complex, including a dedicated cardiology floor and a six-story, 60-bed government officers’ ward at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi. The funds will be released in two installments: Rs. 2.13 billion in 2024-25 and Rs. 1.71 billion in 2025-26. The cabinet approved an amendment to the Provincial Motor Vehicle Ordinance (PMVO) 1965.
This amendment aims to ensure swift vehicle registration, enhance public safety by preventing the misuse of unregistered vehicles for illegal activities, and improve revenue collection. Driving unregistered vehicles in Sindh will be prohibited. All local or imported vehicles must be registered before being allowed on the roads. Registration be completed at registration counters or points within manufacturing units and ports. Dealers and showroom owners are prohibited from selling unregistered vehicles.Responsibility for registration irregularities placed on dealers and showroom owners. The cabinet was told that a certain number of affectees whose houses were collapsed/damaged during the floods were excluded during the joint survey. Since the validation was the purpose, therefore inclusion was not encouraged.
The CM said that there were 15000 cases of inclusion lying with SPHF. The CM with the consent of the cabinet directed the CEO SPHF to start considering the cases excluded earlier. The Sindh cabinet decided to train 20,000 masons so that they could construct climate resilient houses. The training would cost around Rs140 million. The cabinet was told that there were 111,000 individuals identified as persons with disabilities (PWD) who lost their homes in the recent floods. The cabinet decided to construct ramps for accessibility in their house. Additionally, it was decided that an additional Rs50,000 would be given to the PWDs to help them meet the construction requirements of their houses. In an unprecedented decision, the CM on the instructions of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari decided that people with houses on government land near the flood-affected areas would be given land titles. The Irrigation Department informed the cabinet that during the 2022 floods, Manchar Lake at Sehwan experienced a significant disaster. The lake, which collects water from an area of 37000 square miles encompassing the Nari-Bolan basin, Mari-Bugti Hills, and the Kirthar Ranges, received a massive influx of flash floods.
During the floods, the floodwaters followed the FP Bund route as surface runoff through the MNV Drain and reached Manchar Lake before flowing into the Indus River. However, due to the limited capacity of Manchar Lake, two relief cuts were created at RD 14 and RD 52 to release water from the lake into the Indus River. These relief cuts were made along natural waterways, including the Aral Wah and Danistar Canal. However, these waterways are intersected by the Indus Highway, causing blockages to the passage of floodwater from Manchar Lake to the Indus River.
