KARACHI  -  The question hour in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday took ugly turn when the treasury and opposition members indulged in exchange of arguments rather than concentrating on the business as opposition lawmakers seemed unsatisfied with the replies furnished by the Minister for Labour and Human Resources Ghulam Murtaza Baloch.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurram Sherzaman asked what would be the criteria of the government for recruiting in the provincial departments on which Baloch tried his best to convince the opposition lawmaker, saying that the jobs will be given on merit but Sherzaman kept asking the same question again and again. “Firstly, the jobs will be advertised in newspapers followed by interviews of the applicants as well as other procedure of the government would also be carried out,” Baloch added but the opposition members particularly of PTI not seemed pleased.

The PTI parliamentary leader Haleem Adil Shaikh said that everybody knew the provincial government’s criteria of hiring as several cases are being tried in the courts for unlawful appointments. Most of the time in question hour, both treasury and opposition lawmakers kept exchanging heated arguments.

Kulsoom Chandio, Heer Soho and other members of the Pakistan People’s Party came for the minister’s rescue and criticised the opposition. The PPP lawmakers alleged that the opposition members asked irrelevant question and wasted the house’s valuable time.

Meanwhile, the minister informed that currently there are more than 635,000 registered labourers working across the province. He added that Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) had registered 635,970 workers up to 30th September last year. To a query, Baloch said that an amount of Rs 2,000 million was invested in Sindh Bank at a rate of 7.93 per cent of after approval from the SESSI’s investment committee, headed by the commissioner and comprising two members of governing body. The minister added that Rs 400 millions of SESSI’s PG&GPF board were invested in a private bank at a 7.50 per cent. “Total profit received on Investment from January 2018 to October 2018 are Rs 45.77 million 48.736 million from a private bank and Sindh Bank respectively,” said Baloch.

Nand Kumar of the Grand Democratic Alliance asked as if the amount is still secured in the Sindh Bank after the scandal came on to surface. The minister replied that all the amount is there, he even invited the opposition member to go with him to the bank to confirm the amount himself. Replying another question, the minister said that the department has not made any appointments.  He added that new appointments were banned in the past but now the Sindh government will recruit on merit.