Govt body materialises without legal framework

Usually shy of performance and often late to the scene, the provincial bureaucracy, acting against script, appears to have granted a law more efficiency than ever merited. In that, a local government department that recently vaulted to announcing a new provincial authority on urban planning, appears to have missed all legal provisions needed for its groundwork.

As the story goes, certain local government officers of Hyderabad, through an official advertisement, had declared themselves representatives of the Sindh Master Plan Authority (SMPA). It was communicated to the general public, that they were to contact the new-found body before advertising their housing schemes or booking plots in any existing housing scheme within the province. The government advertisement, which was issued on March 17, had also warned the masses about several housing schemes operating illegally in various corners of Sindh, without approval of SMA’s Department of Town Planning. As an icing on top of the peculiar notice, it also featured cellphone numbers of three local government officials, in addition to a landline number traced to Hyderabad.

When The Express Tribune rang one of the said phone numbers, the receiver, who introduced himself with the name Asghar Ali Shah, revealed that he was the assistant director of the Sindh Master Plan Authority. Addressing the body’s purpose, he said that it deals with private housing schemes being run in districts other than Karachi and Hyderabad. “We will not touch housing schemes of Karachi and Hyderabad as they are looked after by different development authorities, who already attend to whatever master planning issues that stem there. Our work is entirely focused on other districts,” he further elucidated.

Where the newly advertised authority seems to be fast on its track to enforcing laws, The Express Tribune, couldn’t find any evidence to validate the presence of an official body called Sindh Master Plan Authority, within the province. However still, the formation of such an authority was touted by the local government department last year, but it could never be materialised owing to various undisclosed reasons. Which further reveals that neither has the Sindh Assembly has passed any law, nor has the provincial government formed any bylaws to support the Sindh Masterplan Authority. Thereby, leaving the department to operate in complete ambiguity, without any legal framework.

Sindh Local Government Department Master Plan Director Rafiq Ahmed Khan, corroborating SMPA’s dubiety, revealed that he had no knowledge of any advertisement touting such a department. Speaking further, he also categorically denied any such government organisation functioning within the province. “It is Town Planning Department in Hyderabad that will be merged into the proposed authority whenever it is that it will be established. A draft law pertaining to proposed establishment of the authority is still pending at the Sindh Law Department for formal approval. We are working as officers of the Town Planning, Local government department,” he informed.

Authority in theory

Per sources, the delay in formation of SMPA stems from its overriding effects on existing development authorities of the province, such as Sindh Building Control Authority, Karachi Development Authority, Hyderabad Development Authority and Lyari Development Authority.

According to the draft of the proposed provincial level authority, the provisions of master planning and town planning of all development authorities were to be repealed after promulgation of Sindh Master Plan Authority. The draft proposed further that provincial level authority will be responsible for development and improvement in the province, acquisition of land for housing schemes, rehabilitation of unplanned areas, re-housing and rehabilitation of displaced persons. While all the private and public institutions responsible for human settlement, spatial planning and use of land will come under domain of the proposed authority and a governing body will run affairs of the authority, with the inclusion of a chairperson, a director general and 11 members.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2021.