Notification to implement new local govt system issued

The move comes three weeks after the ordinance was promulgated.

KARACHI:

The provincial government has finally issued a notification to implement the Sindh Peoples Local Govenment Ordinance 2012. The move was made on Saturday, nearly three weeks after Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan promulgated the ordinance.

Though the ordinance was promulgated on September 7, the government was slow in issuing a notification. This irked the key coalition partner, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which gave the Pakistan Peoples Party a three-day ultimatum on September 25 to issue the notification. It was called off after President Asif Ali Zardari phoned MQM chief Altaf Hussain, assuring him that the notification would be issued soon.

Local government minister Agha Siraj Durrani said that the chief minister approved the summary declaring the 1979 system null and void and asked the chief secretary to issue a notification about the new local government system.

According to the notification, metropolitan corporations will be set up in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur but district councils will keep functioning in the other 18 districts of Sindh. “A mayor will head a metropolitan corporation and a chairperson will run a district council,” the notification said.

The town system will be revived in Karachi, which will be split into 18 towns and its five districts will remain intact. The provincial government will also appoint chief officers to assist the mayors and chairpersons run the local government affairs.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2012.