Delimitation of constituencies: Sindh govt fails to meet deadline, issues notice

Local government secretary says that a notification will be issued soon.

KARACHI: The notification for the process of delimitation of constituencies in Sindh, which was supposed to start on September 26, has yet to be issued by the local government, creating confusion for the relevant authorities which are waiting for further orders.

“The Sindh cabinet, in its decision, has given powers to the deputy commissioners who have to supervise the delimitation process, but we are still waiting for the notification defining the terms of references of the entire process,” Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui told The Express Tribune.

He said that the deputy commissioners will have no idea how to proceed until the modus operandi is defined.  When contacted, the local government secretary, Ali Ahmed Lund, said that they have decided the roles of the deputy commissioners in the process and will issue a notification within hours. “I hope the work on this will start by Monday,” he said.

According to Lund, 14 days have been fixed for the delimitation which will start from the union council level by redrawing their boundaries. In the next seven days, the deputy commissioners would receive the appeals/objections from people belonging to various segments of the society and another week will be fixed to redress their grievances.

According to South deputy commissioner, Jamal Mustafa Qazi, the boundaries of the union councils and Tehsils will initially be scrutinised by the board of revenue. Later, the task would be given to the deputy commissioners for implementation. “We are ready but the work may take two to three more days to start.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2013.