Only Sindh has a working LG system: CM Murad

CM claims that local govts were made a ‘state within the state’ in 2002

KARACHI: Sindh is the only province where the local government system is working, while it has been abolished in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, claimed provincial chief minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday.

This he said while meeting a 103-member delegation from the Naval War College, led by Rear Admiral Mohammad Zubair, who called on him at the CM House on Monday.

"The local government system in Sindh has administrative, financial and operational powers, but even then a perception is being developed that the local government bodies here are powerless," asserted Shah.

He said that the local government system was envisaged and implemented unilaterally by the federal government in 2002, without the input of Sindh's people since the provincial assembly was not in place at the time.

"The third tier, the local government, was made a state within the state, with the power to promote even higher grade officers as well as revenue authority," he stated, adding that local government personnel had promoted officials from Grade-7 to Grade-21 by creating posts on their own. "At the end of the day, they began stretching their hands out for financial support from the provincial government because they had no money to pay salaries."

According to Shah, the menace of encroachments on nullahs, open plots and government property also emerged as a result of the system put in place in 2002. "Therefore, the provincial government enacted a new local government law and implemented it," he explained. "Look at our system - it works to this day and will complete its tenure even though the other provinces have abolished their local bodies."

The CM said that his government's Vision 2025 specified a comprehensive development agenda, laying down a synchronised and integrated development strategy for inclusive and participative economic growth that provided equal opportunities for all. "The vision provides a complete road map to harness resources by creating synergy between the federal and provincial governments, and it will put the province on a trajectory of growth, socio-economic development and prosperity," he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2020.