Core committee meeting: PPP, MQM trying to evolve new local government system

PPP claims that a consensus was reached while MQM says that they agreed to talk.

KARACHI:

A meeting of the representatives of Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement here on Tuesday once again failed to resolve the issue of local government for Sindh.

While PPP leaders claimed that both the parties have reached a consensus to evolve and introduce a new system, the MQM leaders sounded cautious, saying that they have simply agreed to continue the dialogue.

Talking to The Express Tribune, MQM’s Sardar Ahmed said that they are consulting law experts whether the government could come up with a new ordinance or should place the existing ordinance (of August 8) before the Sindh Assembly before it expires on November 6. He added, however, that a “consensus has been reached to frame a new law as soon as possible”.

He said that another meeting of the core committee (a body constituted to resolve the LG issue between the PPP and MQM) would be held on Thursday when legal experts would give their input. “After Thursday’s meeting we may be able to resolve the issue,” he hoped.

But PPP leader Agha Siraj Durrani told the media that they have reached an understanding and a new system would be introduced. Referring to its form and shape, he said it would borrow from both the 2001 and the 1979 systems. “We can call it local government act 2011,” he said.

About Tuesday’s meeting, Durrani said that their talks focused only on the local government system and they did not discuss the commissionerate system. There would be no urban and rural division and a unified system would be created. “We may summon a session of the Sindh Assembly before Eid,” he said. The MQM team, which attended Tuesday’s core committee meeting, included Sardar Ahmed, who is the party’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Kanwar Naveed Jameel and Wasay Jalil. The PPP was represented by minister for local government, Agha Siraj Durrani, and senior minister for education, Pir Mazharul Haq.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2011.