HYDERABAD: The new local government system has been termed the fourth major attack on Sindh’s unity and autonomy since the country gained independence.
“It reminds us of July 1948 when the Sindh Assembly was shifted to Hyderabad and Karachi was separated from Sindh,” said Barrister Zamir Ghumro. The One-Unit system and the local bodies introduced by Pervez Musharraf in 2001 were referred to as the other attacks on the province’s sovereignty.
As the reaction against the ordinance continued for the sixth day, speakers at a conference organised by the Aurat Foundation were of the view that the system reminded them of the past injustices done to the province. The protests led by the opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly and nationalist leaders have been joined in by writers, intellectuals and other civil society members.
The 2012 ordinance has handed over 40 of the 43 portfolios of the provincial government to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, said Ghumro. “Primary education, literacy, health, civil defence, fisheries, culture, excise, housing, transport, law and order, land revenue, energy and others will all be controlled by those who should only be managing drainage, sanitation and cleanliness.”
Section 39 of the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, 2012, gives authority to the metropolitan corporation of Karachi over district councils on revenue record, environment, zoning, housing and creating markets among others. “[However] the district councils under the four other metropolitan corporations have not been given the same authority,” the lawyer contended.
PML-F’s MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbassi, who vociferously led the protesting members in the Sindh Assembly, slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party for conspiring to divide Sindh. “In the past, attacks on Sindh’s unity came from non-Sindhis. It is for the first time that Sindh’s elected representatives are bent upon dividing their motherland,” the MPA lamented.
MPA Marvi Rashdi alleged that the new system makes the mayor stronger than the chief minister as the latter can be sacked through a majority vote in the assembly but the former will go only after completing his term.
Meanwhile, while nationalist leader Dr Qadir Magsi has set up a hunger strike camp in Qasimabad, Hyderabad, PPP Senator Aajiz Dhamrah warned the nationalists to desist from their mudslinging campaign against the ruling party’s leadership.
Sindhi poets protest
On Saturday, Sindhi writers and poets among others gathered outside the Karachi Press Club to condemn the newly passed ordinance, alleging that it has created a state within the states of the province.
They claimed that the law has created chaos and conflicts in Sindh, adding that the government has destroyed the governance, social and economic sectors in the name of reconciliation.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
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No MATTER WHAT withdrawing local bodies will be resisted and will start a new civil war in sindh, i still think there can be some ammendments but it can not be removed as it will create a lot of unrest in sindh, which will be the beiginning of the Division
@Karachiites: This urban division was not done by Sindhis but your leaders form the creation of Pakistan.
1st ethnic division by quota system was done by liaqat (ur nations leader). 2nd ethnic based division in Sindh was done by creating “muhajir qomi movement” by ur leaders. 3rd serious ethnic division was done by your language fellow mr musharaf who divided Sindh into rural and urban by abolishing commissioner system and introduced nazim system.
He divided hyderabad district on ethnic urdu basis and made 4 districts out of the total population of 1.5million people. On a reverse move he united Karachi from five districts to one district with a population of 17 millions. Do u find any logic to divide a city of 1.5 million people into four districts and a city of 17 million people that comprised of five districts were abolished and unit district was started? Wasn't it a division of Sindh to upgrade Urdu speakers over Sindhis by making states within states?
@Karachiites: Your angst of waderas should also be directed towards MQM because it is supporting PPP the largest wadera party of Pakistan.
@Karachiites: Most of areas in the country are still backward in the educational field. They cannot compete with the students of Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi due to unavailability of standardised education there.
Those who are against the extension of quota system do not want people of backward areas like Balochistan and other rural areas to progress well. If quota system has not been implemented faithfully so far, we must take steps to ensure its proper implementation rather than abolishing it.
Freedom also means to give chance to the backward people for progress. People who have no means to come out vicious cycle of poverty and destitution. Same way when migrants came here they were without means of livelihood and they were given quota to come out of their difficult conditions.
@Karachiites: even the Muslims living in united India before migrating to Pakistan, had also demanded introduction of quota system in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) as stated by late Ihtshamul Haq Thanvi, renowned religious scholar many years back. (please check the history and speeches of quid e azam, liaqat, allama iqbal, rana rahmat, maulana brothers, abdul kalaam azaad, peer pagara, peer rashidi, etc). So quota system is not our creation but a craetion of ur nations representative to save ur rights. But todays ur new representative have given a reverse structure of the reality. After the creation of Pakistan, the first Prime Minister late Liaquat Ali Khan had first introduced 20 percent quota system in jobs reserved for Migrants (please do read his reforms). Similarly in Sindh, prevailing quota system in jobs was introduced by Rukhman Gul, the then Governor of Sindh.
@Sindhi: My friend don't try to fill in sense in them. They won't understand. They are blinded by their fascist leaders.
@Karachiites: waderas are the people who are supported BY PPP the very same PPP which us in good terms with MQM/ the nationalists are not waderas my dear. all the PP ministers are and they are with MQM.
Nationalist have always been against waderas. thats why they have always been backed off through PPP
@Logic: Dams can never save any one from any flood. Please do research and then talk my friend.
where were these sindhi nationalists when Quota system was imposed and sindh was divided into Urban and Rural and sealed the fate of urban sindh youth who were deprived from the Government jobs? Accept the reality Sindh is divided into Urban and Rural and will remain like that and if Sindhi nationalists restore to violence then Sindh will divided permanently we people of Karachi getting frustrated day by day we are not peasants of Interior Sindh waderas who wanted to run Karachi and urban Sindh like their jageers. Enough is Enough
Reminds me about how they opposed dams that would have saved them from recent floods.
So how is Sindh is being divided again?
Our cities are being snatched, our resources are being usurped, our students cant get education in Karachi based Unis. in the name of PPP-MQM reconciliation. Is this bounty of this federation? Is this the reason, our forefathers opted to be part of this federation and welcome millions of refugees to come and prosper?? It is duty of State to preserve integrity of Sindh and our basic right over our motherland. We wont accept a system which snatches our control over our province. Never ever, we accept SLPGB2012.