The Sindh cabinet on Thursday decided to give more powers to the local bodies (LBs), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The provincial cabinet, which met in Karachi with Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair, decided that all municipal works would be assigned to the third tier so that people’s problems could be easily identified and resolved.

The cabinet also gave a go ahead signal to framing service rules for the employees of Sindh Education Foundation under the Foundation’s Act of 1992.   

The rules would determine the employees’ appointments, promotions, salaries, allowances and their seniority. 

The Sindh cabinet also approved the setting up of Thalassemia and Haemoglobinopathy Foundation.

The Foundation, to be set up under the public-private partnership, will have 11 members on its board, and the provincial health secretary will be its chairman.

It will give suggestions for improving the state of centers established for the treatment of Thalassemia patients so that they could be provided quality facilities. 

The cabinet also decided to reduce the pass percentage required for admissions in medical colleges from 65 to 50.   

24NewsHD has learnt that the decision was taken in view of seats lying vacant in the province’s medical colleges.

Furthermore, the Sindh health minister and other concerned officials had also demanded reduction in the pass percentage. 

The minister had pointed out to the provincial cabinet the obstacles that came in the way of admissions of students in both public and private medical colleges. 

He had said that due to higher pass percentage last year, of total 8,287 students who managed to get through the exams, 2,900 got admissions in the government-owned medical colleges while 800 in private colleges; the remaining 4, 587 failed to make to any of these colleges; hence 1, 800 seats remained vacant, forcing the private institutions to fill 1,300 of these seats by admitting students from other provinces, while 492 remained vacant till the end of the year. “If the same situation persists, Sindh will have the shortage of 10,000 doctors in the next five years,” the minister added.  

It was also decided at the meeting to purchase 250 hybrid diesel buses to facilitate the commuters.

The buses will operate under Sindh Intra-district People’s Bus Service Project. 

The Sindh cabinet also sanctioned the allotment of 200 acres of land to the Pakistan Navy. 

Reporter Muhammad Kamran