KARACHI - The Sindh Assembly Monday adopted a bill to regularise the teachers who were appointed on contract basis in 2014 through NTS under Teachers Recruitment Policy 2012 and Sindh University under TRP 2008.

However, the provincial minister for Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Ahmed Khuhro who tabled the bill in the house did not specify as to how many teachers would be benefitted from this legislation.

The Sindh Assembly proceedings on Monday began almost an hour late from scheduled timings with Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair.

The bill was tabled by Nisar Ahmed Khuhro for the assent from the house. It was aimed at regularising the teachers who were appointed on contract basis in 2014 through NTS under Teachers Recruitment Policy 2012 and Sindh University under TRP 2008.

The decision was take in light of the Sindh cabinet approval to regularise these teachers after the provincial government was forced to take this decision due to the continuous protest from the teachers. It stated that orders of regularisation would be issued after verification of performance by Reform Support Unit of the education department. The teacher would not be regularised unless he completes three years of contract period and does not have qualification as per the post.

It also duty bound teachers to serve in the schools where they are appointed with a time period of five years for male teachers and three years for female teachers. No teacher could be transferred before completing this period.

Although the bill did not received any opposition as the major opposition parties had earlier forced the government to resolve the issue of protesting teachers but MQM Parliamentary Leader Syed Sardar Ahmed raised queries regarding the number of teachers to be benefited from the legislation and implementation on urban and rural quota.

Minister for Education Jam Mehtab Dahar did not inform regarding the number of employees benefitted from the legislation but said that the urban rural quota do not need to be implemented as recruitments were made in past and the legislation was only aimed at regularizing them.

The House later adopted the bill unanimously.

A bill titled Sindh Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill 2018 was deferred for Wednesday after the MQM lawmaker Sardar Ahmed asked the parliamentary affairs minister to further reconsider it in light of recommendation sent by him via a letter to the chief minister and the parliamentary affairs minister. The Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani also rejected an adjournment motion from Khurram Sher Zaman regarding alleged corruption in development funds for Larkana citing it non-maintainable due to case pending before the courts.

The parliamentary affairs minister said that the issue is sub-judice before the Sindh High Court, therefore it could not be taken up.

Moreover, to a call attention notice from Khurram Sher Zaman regarding sale of different kinds of drugs outside school and colleges in Karachi, the home minister Sohail Anwer Sial assured the lawmaker that the government is committed to take action against such heinous crimes and said that lawmaker is also welcomed to pint out any such activity so that the authorities could take action against it.

The speaker Sindh Assembly also announced assent from Governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair Umar to the bill tilted Sindh Procurement Amendment Bill 2017.

The House was later adjourned for Tuesday.