PPP, MQM inch closer to new local government system

Handout for meeting on Monday said some matters had been resolved.

KARACHI: Talks on a new local government system between core committees of the ruling Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) and their provincial and federal coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) continued on Monday with some matters believed to have found resolution.

The meeting held in the CM House Monday was attended by Aga Siraj Durrani, Syed Murad Ali Shah and Muhammad Ayaz Soomro of the PPP, while the MQM was represented by Dr Farooq Sattar, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Kanwar Naveed Jamil and Wasay Jalil.

A handout issued after Monday’s meeting said that the committee deliberated upon different sections of Sindh Local Government Act 2010 and many issues were resolved. Both parties hoped that the proposed Act would be finalised soon.

The core committees of ruling coalition partners have been deadlocked in talks on evolving a consensus on the new local government system to implement primarily in Karachi, and generally in Sindh.

Government officials seemed to have settled on a new “hybrid” system which borrows from the previous systems of governance, the municipal system instituted in 1979 and the local government system introduced by General Pervez Musharraf in 2001. Once the finer details are ironed out, officials believe it would not take long to implement the new system.