PPP, MQM agree to new local government system

SLGO 2011 to be placed before house of representatives.


Express November 03, 2011

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have decided to introduce a new local government system which will take into consideration “expectations and aspirations of the people”, and will help “end the urban and rural differences.”

An official handout issued after a four-hour long session here on Thursday between the PPP and MQM representatives said that the new system, to be known as Sindh Local Government System 2011, will soon be placed before the provincial assembly so that it is “brought under legal cover.”

However, the sources said that there was no possibility of convening a session of the Sindh Assembly before Eid and the proposed system may be given legal cover through an ordinance by the governor.

Some other sources said that while there was a broader agreement among the PPP and MQM leaders, they failed to resolve differences on several aspects of this system. The deliberations in Thursday’s meeting were shrouded in secrecy as all participants avoided the media. “I am at a meeting and cannot talk on the issue. You can get the handout from CM House,” said MQM’s Kanwar Naveed Jameel who attended.

The existing local government system owes its life to an ordinance of August 8 which will cease to exist on November 6 and the old system of 1979 will stand revived automatically.

While the official handout said that “the delegations will again meet and the matter will be finalized soon,” official sources said Mazharul Haq, “it has been decided that no leader will brief the media until matter is finalised.”

The core committee meeting on Thursday was attended among others by senior minister of education, Pir Mazharul Haq, Sindh minister for local government, Agha Siraj Durrani, minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Muhammad Ayaz Soomro, minister for archives and special development, Rafique Engineer from the PPP, while the members of the MQM team included Syed Sardar Ahmed and Dr Sagheer Ahmed.

Meanwhile, different political parties have opposed any decision on the proposed local government system unless all the stakeholders are taken into confidence. While the PPP leaders have repeatedly said that would consult all the coalition partners before taking any decision, the leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and Awami National Party said on Thursday that PPP had ignored them.

“No PPP leader has contacted us yet. We still support the commissionerate system and will resist if any other system is imposed without our consent,” PML-F leader Imtiaz Shaikh said. He said that they had also suggested some amendments but the government was not willing to consider it.

Shahi Syed of the ANP said that they would oppose the local government system being proposed by the PPP and MQM. “We demand that government should first initiate audit of city district government before introducing a new system because billions of rupees have been misappropriated during the last five years,” he said adding that the members of ANP will not only vote against it, but they would also start a street campaign against the system.

Senator Khalid Mehmood Soomro, who is the general secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in Sindh, said that the new system was being brought to appease some people.  He said that MQM was blackmailing the PPP and both want to impose a system which was against the wishes of people.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th,  2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Syed | 12 years ago | Reply

Thank God finally. ANP and Sindh Nationalists are just opposing the LG system because they favour Feudal system. And its Ironic that the Party which has the railways ministry is complaining about the corruption of the (CDGK) govt which received ISO certification and other international recognition for its services !

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