Governor Ibad signs Ordinance for new Sindh local government system
Karachi, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas will be designated metropolitan cities with mayor, deputy mayor.
KARACHI:
Governor Sindh Ishratul Ibad has signed the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, immediately bringing into effect a new system for governance in Sindh, Express News reported early Friday morning.
Earlier, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah had signed a summary for the Ordinance and dispatched it to the Governor House.
The move comes after a marathon 11 hour meeting between representatives of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) who had seemingly finalised and then came unstuck on some finer points of the new system. However, sources told Express News that both the parties have agreed to resolve some of those finer points at a later date and bring them into effect as and when they are finalised.
Earlier, it had been reported that after hiccups, the two allied parties had finally agreed on a new local government formula.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon had told the media that PPP and MQM have evolved a consensus on the new local government system and an ordinance to bring the new system in to effect would be issued within a few-hours after resolving finer points.
Talking to media after attending the meeting of both the coalition partners (PPP-MQM) at CM House on Thursday, he said that government has consulted with PML F, PML Q and ANP and cabinet members would also be briefed on it.
There were reports that the new local government system would be named as “Peoples Metropolitan Corporation 2012” and metropolitan corporations would be setup in five divisions of Sindh including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana. Meanwhile, there would be district councils in the rest of Sindh. Mayors and deputy mayors would head the metropolitan corporations and chairman and deputy chairman would tend to the affairs of district governments.
Chief metropolitan officers would also be appointed who will share the powers with commissioners in the metropolitan city, while commissioners and deputy commissioners would continue looking after the revenue and law order situation. The eighteen defunct towns of Karachi are also likely to be revived while the five districts would continue in order to ease the administrative affairs.
The leaders of both the political parties called it their success but avoided to further brief about silent features of the ordinance, which according to them would be issued shortly.
Meanwhile Sardar Ahmed, parliamentary leader of MQM in Sindh Assembly said that they would not leave CM House till the finalisation of ordinance draft. He avoided shedding light on it, but added that it would be a unified system seemingly because MQM is against the division of Sindh.
The reports pouring in from CM House said that political administrators would be appointed in all the towns and metropolitan cities who would perform the role of mayors till the local government elections are held.
Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Sindh Dr. Ishtat ul Ebad Khan were also attended the hours long meeting. Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghauri, Wasay Jalil, Dr. Farukh Naseem, Kanwar Naveed Jamil were among others who represented MQM. While Agha Siraj Durrani, Ayaz Soomro, Murad Ali Shah, Rafique Engineer, Sharjeel Memon and Pir Mazhar ul Haq of PPP took part in the meeting.
Earlier, an framework agreed upon by the PPP and the MQM ran into snags when other parties such as the ANP and the PML-F raised objections to some aspects of the proposed system.
Governor Sindh Ishratul Ibad has signed the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, immediately bringing into effect a new system for governance in Sindh, Express News reported early Friday morning.
Earlier, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah had signed a summary for the Ordinance and dispatched it to the Governor House.
The move comes after a marathon 11 hour meeting between representatives of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) who had seemingly finalised and then came unstuck on some finer points of the new system. However, sources told Express News that both the parties have agreed to resolve some of those finer points at a later date and bring them into effect as and when they are finalised.
Earlier, it had been reported that after hiccups, the two allied parties had finally agreed on a new local government formula.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon had told the media that PPP and MQM have evolved a consensus on the new local government system and an ordinance to bring the new system in to effect would be issued within a few-hours after resolving finer points.
Talking to media after attending the meeting of both the coalition partners (PPP-MQM) at CM House on Thursday, he said that government has consulted with PML F, PML Q and ANP and cabinet members would also be briefed on it.
There were reports that the new local government system would be named as “Peoples Metropolitan Corporation 2012” and metropolitan corporations would be setup in five divisions of Sindh including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana. Meanwhile, there would be district councils in the rest of Sindh. Mayors and deputy mayors would head the metropolitan corporations and chairman and deputy chairman would tend to the affairs of district governments.
Chief metropolitan officers would also be appointed who will share the powers with commissioners in the metropolitan city, while commissioners and deputy commissioners would continue looking after the revenue and law order situation. The eighteen defunct towns of Karachi are also likely to be revived while the five districts would continue in order to ease the administrative affairs.
The leaders of both the political parties called it their success but avoided to further brief about silent features of the ordinance, which according to them would be issued shortly.
Meanwhile Sardar Ahmed, parliamentary leader of MQM in Sindh Assembly said that they would not leave CM House till the finalisation of ordinance draft. He avoided shedding light on it, but added that it would be a unified system seemingly because MQM is against the division of Sindh.
The reports pouring in from CM House said that political administrators would be appointed in all the towns and metropolitan cities who would perform the role of mayors till the local government elections are held.
Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Sindh Dr. Ishtat ul Ebad Khan were also attended the hours long meeting. Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghauri, Wasay Jalil, Dr. Farukh Naseem, Kanwar Naveed Jamil were among others who represented MQM. While Agha Siraj Durrani, Ayaz Soomro, Murad Ali Shah, Rafique Engineer, Sharjeel Memon and Pir Mazhar ul Haq of PPP took part in the meeting.
Earlier, an framework agreed upon by the PPP and the MQM ran into snags when other parties such as the ANP and the PML-F raised objections to some aspects of the proposed system.