Members of the MQM rabita committee address the press conference on Tuesday. PHOTO: MQM
Condemning the move, Kunwar Naveed of the Rabita Committee at a press conference, demanded the Sindh government to bring back the 2001 local goverment system. “By enforcing the 1979 system, the PPP has taken away the rights of the representatives of the common people and left the people at the mercy of commissioners and deputy commissioners.”
He said that the through the local system of the Zia regime, the administrative, financial and political rights of the local body authorities has been snatched by the Sindh government.
Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities have become garbage dumps as the authorities don't have money to pay to their workers, he added.
Voicing their demand, Naveed said they want the 2001 system to be in place so that Sindh is divided into city, town and union councils, and through nazims and UC heads, the problems of the people are addressed and their issues are resolved.
He said that they would raise this issue in the parliament and take legal course.
“The politicians are not in favour of common people getting elected in these local government bodies and solving the problems of their region,” said the MQM leader.
“The local government system was first introduced by Ayub Khan, then Ziaul Haq in 1979, followed by Pervez Musharraf in 2001. Ironically, the LGS law was always imposed by the dictators but the democratically elected assembly never took the step of implementing this law.”
Lauding the role of MQM in this respect, he said that, “MQM, when it was a coalition party in the previous regime, forced the Sindh government to implement LGS. Though the system was not serving the people like MQM wanted, but the party thought that something is better than nothing.”
Almost four months after the Sindh government had revived the 1979 local government system, it formally enacted the law on Monday.
The Pakistan Peoples Party government restored the five administrative districts of Karachi and their municipal corporations, scrapping the town systems in the city in the process.
The town municipal administration and the post of Town Municipal Officer (TMOs) were also abolished.
COMMENTS (23)
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@iftekhar hussain: are you the same person who is released on bail? Can you please tell us what is going on in London?
I wish we have directly elected mayor in karachi like all mega cities world over , with p[olice , law and order , health and educationalong with civic eminities .
Why not ask the people ? ............... and, to a man, they will say that they don't want any government...........local or non-local...........because.......... governments have given them nothing.
OMG they still don't have any clue which governing system they need to run local body after 65 yr.
1979 system is not bad system for LG. This is a reason, all four provinces have opted this system. Under the same system, Mr.Farooq Sattar and A.Sattar Afghani of JI performed effective role as mayor Karachi. There is however, need of upright and an honest politician to be elected as mayor to resolve pending issues. Sindh Assembly, like other provincial assemblies passed a bill reviving 79 system, and we should respect the democratic decision of Assembly. PPP Govt should not bow down before violent groups, and conduct free and fair Local Body elections based on revived LG system. This time bio-metric system should be used, otherwise Thappa Mafia may hijack this election too.
It is clear which political party is blocking people empowerment Ayesha M.
Ayesha bibi the question is not which party ,the question really is :WHY?
The Sindhi waderas have turned Interior Sindh into shambles , the need some source to syphone off the hard earned money of honest living people in Karachi . Karachi is the golden egg laying goose .
They need some pathetic old haggard system like quota system to loot and plunder us . If it was not enough to collect billion Rs bhatta through the Amn Committee which is equally shared to the top most slot in the Govt .
@ iftekhar Hussain
I have heard from many residents of Karachi that most of the mega projects in Karachi were initiated by Nazim Naimatullah Khan during his tenure. While Mustafa Kamal of MQM has simply put his plaques on the projects of Naimatullah Khan.
What an irony! Just in hate for MQM and Karachi PPP introduced a System of General Zia! As a Karachitte I strongly oppose this 79 system and support 2001 system which brought revolutionary changes in Karachi and rest of Sind.
One thing is ascertained, PPP has zero clue how to run the affairs of country....
We oppose and condemn the 1979 local body system .
Local Government is meant to facilitate a common man and not to empower the already powerful people.
The delimma of Pakistan is the people who are already empowered do not want to transfer powers to their democratically elected people.
Powerful people do not want that through local government the problems of a common man should be solved.
This is the one of the reasons that the Sindh Goverment wants to delegate powers to the bureaucrats so that whenever Sindh Government wants to pull the strings of the bureaucrats they can do that and bureaucrats should dance as puppets on the tune of the Sindh government.
One of the best decisions by MQM for the betterment of Karachi and Karachiites.
Why did the previous govt who were in power and the MQM were their coalination partners, hold Local bodies election? They only want to be in the govt and have a system which suits them only. Why would they let the people manage their own city, towns and UC? Coz they want to eat the cake and keep it also. They fool the people in the name of democracy, whereas democracy starts at grassroot levels.
Now MQM face rough behavior from ruling party. But they remember that they also done same thing with opposition now why they crying
The arguments they present are childish since they were in the government when the system of DC's were adopted and their consent was taken to post administrators. Hence this system is still enforced and the formality has been done by the Government.
BTW who says people will be empowered with this system of 2001, what has been done during that period except few roads built, few bridges and underpasses with extremely poor quality and we have been inherited with a completely devastated KMC, chaos, malpractices and full of incapable staff.
I suggest instead of opposing the system they should work for the resolution of main issues and one of them directly related to KMC is a matter of dry ports that they should be raising in the NA, which they did not raised during in power for reasons best known to themselves.
Dear commentators, remember one thing, the party which served the masses of Karachi with regards to municipal functions, is just one, and it is MQM. So far as PTI is concerned, Abdhi iske doodh ke daant hain.
Give it 10-15 mins, MQM will do a press conference against their first conference, I wonder if they themselves realise how stupid they look to the rest of the world with their confused leadership.
It is clear which political party is blocking people empowerment.
On behalf of all the PTI trolls on internet, I would like to support 1979 ordinance, although Local govt is one of the main primary supported policies of PTI, but since here MQM is supporting local govt, so naturally we have to go against it.
-- sarcasm end !
Our argument should be as simple as 'if we have democracy here' then people's will must prevail. We, the people the very ordinary citizens here, wish that we manage locally our civil lives ourselves through the people who we elect to do this job for us to our satisfaction. Period. Either we have it or we don't have any democracy or democatic rights as free citizens to decide what suits us best.
i don't know to laugh or weep. we are different people with different nature and we need a dictator to bring us on one platform by force. Democracy is not for people like us.
Politics of vengeance by the PPP. The 2001 Local Body system introduced by Musharraf should be restored in letter and spirit.
Another day another drama!