KARACHI: The Sindh chief minister was informed on Monday that the provincial government is working to replace 61 federal laws with the provincial ones in compliance with the 18th amendment to the Constitution.

Chairing a meeting here, CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah directed the chief secretary and the law department to expedite legislation work so that responsibilities and function of the departments devolved after the 18th amendment could be taken over.

Earlier, CM`s Adviser on Zakat Dost Mohammad informed the meeting that his department had already completed necessary legislation.

`Now the board of trustees is to be formed to implement the Zakat Bill,` he said, adding that he had already held a meeting with the Sindh Revenue Board which had been assigned the task of collection of Zakat.

He said that the Zakat collection in Ramzan was around Rs3 billion. `We will increase it from Rs3bn [next year] and utilise the amount for the needy people, he said.

The chief secretary informed the CM that the legislation for devolving the Employees OldAge Benefit Institution (EOBI) at the provinciallevel had been completed. `Presently, the labour department is preparing proposals for setting up the structure of the EOBI,` he said.

Labour Secretary RasheedSolangi told the meeting that the Workers` Welfare Fund (WWF) legislation had also been completed and his department would issue a notification for the board within a week.

He said that the WWF recovery might go up to Rs3bn.

The federal laws to be replaced with the provincial laws are on the following subjects.

The travel agencies, hotels and restaurants, tourists guides, wildlife protection, compulsory education, food authority, pure food, mother languages as compulsory additional subject at primary level, domestic violence (preservation & protection), environmental protection, The West Pakistan Historical Mosques and Shrine Fund Cess, the protection of breastfeeding and child nutrition, injured persons (medical aid), industrial relations, cultural heritage preservation, archives, antiquities, borstal institution, Holy Quran (printing & Recording), vaccination, child welfare and protection, protection against harassment at workplace, senior citizens welfare bill, supervision of curriculum textbooks and maintenance of standard of education, child marriage prohibition, agriculture pesticides, seed, plant breeders rights, etc.

The meeting was attended by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo and other senior officials.