Sindh govt okays name for top Karachi post

CM Murad after consulting cabinet approves name of Iftikhar Ali Shallwani as city’s new administrator


Our Correspondent September 05, 2020
Iftikhar Ali Shallwani. PHOTO: TWITTER/@Shallwani

KARACHI:

The Sindh government has decided to appoint Iftikhar Ali Shallwani, an officer of Pakistan Administrative Service (BS-21), to the post of the Karachi administrator, provincial government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab confirmed on Saturday.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah approved the name of the administrator after consulting the provincial cabinet.

Shallwani will run the affairs of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) until the fresh local government elections.

The decision came four days after the local governments completed their tenure and the four-year term of former Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhar ended last month.

Shallwani has earlier served as the Karachi commissioner. Muhammad Sohail Rajput had replaced him as the Karachi commissioner.

Shallwani was posted as the new Sindh local government housing and town planning secretary last month after his predecessor, Roshan Ali Sheikh was arrested by National Accountability Bureau in illegal land allotment case.

Sources privy to the development had earlier told The Express Tribune that federal government wanted to appoint a neutral and independent administrator for the city.

Under the law an administrator can work for 120 days but his tenure may be extended till the provincial government enacts a new legislation for the local governments.

The federal government also wants that a powerful local government system introduced in Karachi as the incumbent one in the country’s commercial hub does not give any meaningful powers to the mayor.

It is expected that next month, the Supreme Court would take up a constitutional petition filed by the PTI seeking directions for the devolution of powers to local government institutions to fulfill the requirements of Article 140-A of the Constitution as well as Articles 3, 4, 9, 14, 16, 17,19, 19A and 25.

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