Diluting local government: KDA revived after 14 years

LG minister to head Karachi Development Authority; MQM protests move.

KARACHI:

Sindh Assembly revived on Monday the defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA) after 14 years.

KDA was merged into the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in 2002 during the tenure of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. The then lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had amended KDA Ordinance 1952 by merging it with the KMC and placing it under the then city nazim. Monday's move to reverse the merger was opposed by MQM lawmakers, who moved an amendment to appoint the city mayor as the KDA chairperson. However, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party dismissed the amendment.

At the start of the proceedings, the bill to revive KDA was listed on the agenda only for an introduction, which allows the MPAs a chance to read the bill and bring forth any amendments. Soon after the bill was introduced, senior education and parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro made a surprising request. "We have a supplementary agenda in this House and I want to bring something out of order," he said.

MQM parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed opposed his statement. "What kind of agenda are you are talking about?" he asked. "If it is important then please share with us."

Khuhro smiled and told him to look at the bill in front of him. After getting permission from speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to present the supplementary agenda, Khuhro read aloud the contents of the Karachi Development Authority (Revival and Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The opposition members were visibly outraged. "It [bill] was just for introduction, not consideration," said MQM's Syed Khalid Ahmed. "Don't impose laws. This seems to be a democratic dictatorship."

Khuhro said he has the speaker's permission to do so. "During a dictator's tenure, this development authority was merged with the KMC," said Khuhro. "We want to promote the housing industry in Karachi by initiating various schemes, such as the Lyari Development Authority and the Malir Development Authority," he said, asking the local government minister, who will head the revived KDA, to share the objectives.

By abolishing KDA, the then government put it under the KMC and started 'china-cutting' on KDA lands, said local government minister Jam Khan Shoro. "Most junior workers of the KDA working at grade seven were promoted to grades 17 and 18, and its properties were transferred to those people who were wanted by the government in various cases," he claimed.

Khuhro proceeded to move the bill, clause by clause, but MQM's Sardar Ahmed asked to move an amendment, which was allowed. "I want to move an amendment to appoint an elected mayor of the KMC as its chairperson," he said, explaining that the mayor has already been deprived of all basic powers, such as municipal services and water and sanitation schemes, so he should be given an opportunity to work as KDA chairperson.

"The Solid Waste Management Board and the Sindh Building Control Authority have been placed under the control of the provincial government," he pointed out. "These are the basic functions of a mayor in any metropolitan city.  What will the mayor do without these powers?"

Khuhro asked the House to vote on the amendment but it was unsurprisingly rejected and the bill was passed. According to the bill, KDA will have a chairperson and a seven-member governing body - comprising two MPAs nominated by the government, the local government secretary, Karachi commissioner and KDA director-general.

Four bills passed

During the session, four other bills — Sindh Factories Bill, 2015, Sindh Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Bill, 2015, Sindh Shops and Commercial Establishment Bill, 2015, and Sindh Service Tribunals (Amendment) Bill, 2016 — were passed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2016.