KARACHI: Women development department official(s) on Monday drew criticism of lawmakers as well as the speaker of the Sindh Assembly for providing wrong information to the house, while the minister had to face censure with demands for an inquiry into the matter and stern action against those found responsible.

The issue came up during the question hour, which pertained to the women development department, in the Sindh Assembly when Muttahida Quami Movement lawmaker Heer Soho pointed out contradictions in a written reply about women hostel schemes and the annual development programme documents for 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Ms Soho has earlier asked if the government had any plans to establish women hostels in 23 districts of the province. The reply in the negative was provided in writing and read out by Women Development Minister Rubina Qaimkhani in the assembly. However, Ms Soho said how the minister could say that there had been no planning for the hostels while the ADP books showed that such schemes had been approved in the ADPs of 2012-13 and -14.

As the minister looked confused with no quick response to the remarks, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani asked the minister if the schemes as mentioned by Ms Soho were mentioned in the ADPs, then why the department officials and she (the minister) did not know about it.

Eventually Ms Qaimkhani said that the schemes were mentioned in the ADPs but no funds were released. The speaker on listening that said the correct information should have been provided to the assembly and asked why wrong information was provided. He said he had told ministers earlier also that no wrong information should be provided to the house.

He said that it had happened for a second time in the assembly and called for an inquiry into the issue. He said those found responsible for providing wrong information should be dealt with sternly in accordance with the relevant rules.

MQM lawmaker Sumeta Syed instantly got up and informed the chair that she had also asked for some information during the question hour three weeks ago and Information Minister Sharjeel Memon had committed to providing the information within three days, but it did not happen. Mr Durrani then asked Mr Memon to keep his promise and provide the information to the house.

Replying to another question raised by Ms Soho regarding schemes relating to two women centres, the minister said that work on the scheme had been stopped owing to some land related issue and litigation. When Ms Soho asked if the work was not under way where its funds were being spent, the minister said that the funds had been released but not spent so far.

Another MQM lawamaker, Mohammad Hussain Syed, said if work on the schemes was not under way, then how the ADP documents for the years 2012-13 and -14 were showing 38 per cent and 71 per cent progress, respectively. When the minister could not respond to it, the speaker asked her to get a clarification from the department and inform the assembly accordingly.

Replying to yet another of Ms Soho’s questions regarding women development complexes in Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana and the update on the schemes, the minister said that work on the Sukkur complex, which was to cost around Rs210 million, was in progress. However, she added, there were no schemes for Mirpurkhas and Larkana.

Referring to the ADP documents, Ms Soho said that these schemes had been mentioned in the ADP so why work on only one had been started. To this the minister said that work on centres at Shaheed Benazirabad and Sukkur was in progress.

Speaker Durrani who was listening to this on-going conversation asked the minister to institute an in-depth probe to find out as to why and by whom in the department wrong and irrelevant information was being provided to the assembly and also to look into the fact that if the official(s) concerned was / were properly educated and had been inducted into the government service properly and also what did they think, the honourable assembly members were illiterate and could be misled. He asked her to conduct the inquiry, take action against those found responsible, and inform the assembly about the outcome of the inquiry and subsequent action taken.

Answering a question asked by MQM legislator Naila Muneer regarding district-wise recruitment done in women development department in 2011-12, the minister said that nine women were recruited — these were Amber Bhattia, Benazir Mazari, Sangum Yunus and Hina Arshad recruited from Karachi; Samina Abbasi, Qurt-ul-Aain and Aiman Abro (from Larkana); Hina Pathan (Sanghar); and Bibi Yasmeen (Jamshoro).

Replying to a question raised by Moin Pirzada of the MQM regarding district-wise appointments made in day care centre of Karachi and the sales and display centre, the minister said that seven people, six of them from Karachi, had been recruited in the day care centre who were Dr Sadia Manzoor, Shaheena Mansoor, Mehnaz Dalil, Farah Haroon, Roshan Aara, Shehnaz Perveen and Yousuf (who is from Tharparkar). And Rashid Ali and Asif Ali were recruited at the sales and display centre and belonged to Karachi, added the minister.

Irum Farooqui of the MQM; Seema Zia of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf; and others also participated in the question-answer session.