KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Tuesday informed that the livestock and fisheries department had not been completely devolved to the province under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

Furnishing a statement duringQuestion Hour in the assembly, Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Abdul Bari Pitafi said that the federal government had not fully devolved all functions and assets of the department to the province.

He said that these assets included the Korangi Fish Harbour, shrimp hatchery at Hawkesbay, livestock labs and otherinfrastructure.

The minister further said that the provincial government had taken up the matter with the inter-provincial coordination ministry for devolving the assets to the province.

`A meeting was held on December 27, 2018 in which we sought sufficient funds from the federal pool forthe provincial sector,` he added.

In reply to a question, asked by Khurram Sher Zaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the minister said that the provinciallivestock department was engaged with the federal government for the funds to be spent on development of fisheries.

Illegal nets In reply to another question by Mr Zaman regarding unlawful fishing, Mr Pitafi said that the department was continuously combating against influential mafia in coastal brackish water area.

He said that more than 350 illegalnets were confiscated and cases were referred to the courts of law concerned. `About 120 illegal nets have been burnt after seeking the order from the honourable court`, he added.

The minister said that as far as the inland water was concerned regarding the illegal possession of influential people on any public water bodies, no written complaint was lodged by the bona fide fishermen in the fisheries department.

First biosafety level lab Replying to other questions, he said that the country`s first `Bio-safety Level Laboratory and Quality Enhancement Cell for Highly Virus Vaccine Development` was also being established in Karachi.

The livestock minister said that vaccines of bird flu and foot-andmouth diseases (FMDs) of livestock would be produced in this laboratory.

He said that the scheme was initiated in 2013 with a cost of Rs 160.639 million and had to be completed by 2018. However, it suffered delays owing to `typical` way of construction of suchlaboratories.

`The civil work is 95 per cent completed and now just the equipment has to be installed. The laboratorywould be functioning by this year, the minister assured.

To another question asked by opposition member Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, he said that a project to control `Surra`, an infectious disease among livestock, was initiated with the cost of Rs59.883m in arid and coastal zones at Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar, Khairpur and Jamshoro.

He said that the scheme was completed in June 2018.

To a supplementary question, he said medicine sufficient for 147,000 animals was imported and as many as 25,338 camels and horses were treated.