After a long gap: City council’s maiden session today

CM expected to issue production order to ensure mayor's presence

KARACHI: After a gap of more than six years, the Karachi city council will hold its first session on Wednesday (today). The tenure of the city's last elected mayor, Syed Mustafa Kamal, ended in February 2010.

For the first time in history, the elected mayor of the metropolis, Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Wasim Akhtar, is behind bars and it is unclear how he will run the city council from the confines of Karachi Central Jail. Some reports suggest he will delegate the job to deputy mayor Arshad Vohra.

Akhtar was sent to jail on July 19 this year after his bail was rejected in a case of allegedly facilitating terrorists and criminals. He is also facing charges in nearly two dozen other cases of sedition and other alleged offences in various police stations across the city.

Production problems

In cases of sessions of the national and provincial assemblies, the speakers of the respective house issue the production orders of imprisoned lawmakers. However, in the city council's case, an unprecedented situation has arisen as the mayor is the speaker of the house as well.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) municipal commissioner, Badar Jameel, has written a letter to the Karachi central jail's superintendent to produce Akhtar for the session.

The letter requests the relevant authorities to produce Akhtar in custody with adequate security arrangements to chair the session of the KMC council as mayor.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Jameel said they want Akhtar to be produced in the council's session as in his presence the decisions of the council could be easily approved by him. However, he accepted that if for any reason, the mayor cannot come to the session, the deputy mayor can approve the decisions.

Earlier, during the mayoral elections and then the oath-taking ceremony, Akhtar's production orders were issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

This time, Jameel said, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has the power to issue the production order.

Moreover, a notification was issued by Jameel regarding the financial powers of the deputy mayor last week, in which he has mentioned that in the absence of the mayor, the deputy mayor under Section 80(2) of the Sindh Local Government Council Act, 2013 can exercise the mayor's powers. Therefore, all the accounts of KMC shall be operated and maintained with joint signatures of the deputy mayor and the KMC municipal commissioner, it stated further.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2016.