Qasimabad’s growth has been phenomenal but we can’t rate it on estimates: PPP leader. PHOTO: FILE
The ongoing delimitation exercise for the local government elections appears set on denying representation to a majority of the people in the absence of a fresh population census. Besides, it has also divided Hyderabad district in three separate units, comprising one municipal corporation and two municipal committees.
This detachment is reflective of the political parties’ dominance in their respective areas - The City and Latifabad talukas, which elected legislators from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the May 2013 elections, have been put under the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC).
Meanwhile, Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural talukas, the traditional strongholds of the Pakistan Peoples Party, have been made separate municipal committees.
The HMC will comprise the union committees in City and Latifabad talukas while the two municipal committees will have wards and union councils as their constituent units. The population limits for the UCs have been set from 10,000 to 15,000 and the wards will contain between 4,000 and 5,000 people. The final number of UCs and wards is yet to be notified.
The assistant commissioner Naeem Sindhu, told The Express Tribune that he has proposed up to 45 UCs for his taluka. “We have sent multiple proposals recommending a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 45 UCs.” The latest proposal was sent light of the new directives in the October 10 notification issued by the provincial government.
According to him, no major addition has been made to the taluka’s population which stood around 500,000 in the 1998 census. Similarly, Latifabad’s assistant commissioner Syed Ataullah Shah has submitted propositions for up to 38 union committees for the taluka.
In Hyderabad rural, at least one or two union councils will be added to the existing number of 11 UCs said the assistant commissioner Syed Inayat Ali Shah. The taluka will also have two town committees for Tando Jam and Hoosri towns.
Changing demographics
Over the last one-and-a-half decade since the last census, Hyderabad has seen a constant rise in local and migrant population coming from other parts of Sindh. The district’s population is estimated to be around 3 million at present, up from 1.167 million in 1998.
“Without a fresh population census, a large number of the people will go unrepresented in the LG polls,” says Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s MPA Sabir Qaimkhani. The MPA expressed lack of knowledge about the delimitation exercise, saying his party will take a stance when the final form of the UCs and wards is officially declared. “So far, the government itself appears confused. It has changed the population criteria for the wards and UCs several times.”
The lack of representation in the LG elections will be at its worse if the delimitation in Qasimabad taluka is done according to the submitted proposals. The town, which has seen an exponential population surge over the last decade, is inhabited by approximately more than 400,000 people.
Yet, the population factored in is only around 125,000, Assistant Commissioner Mehboob Siyal told The Express Tribune. The number of registered voters from the town in the general elections was 169,793.
Zahid Bhugari, the PPP’s district president who was twice elected as MPA from Qasimabad, though unsatisfied with the omission of the town’s major localities, says it is the only way for holding the LG elections in time. “Although Qasimabad’s growth has been phenomenal but we can’t rate it on estimates. There will be an outcry from the other talukas [in Hyderabad].”
The provincial government has extended the last date of completing the delimitation till October 25. The district administrations will share details of the delimitation before the deadline after which they will receive objections and appeals from the stakeholders.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s leader Ayub Shar as well as the nationalist parties said they will oppose any move which denies representation to the people.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2013.
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Democracies are being hijacked the world over, whether that be by Jeb Bush for brother George in Florida to my local council in the heart of England in Rutland. Dame Shirley Porter found out who wasn"t voting Conservative in Westminster and moved those people outside her authority's area to North Kensington. Boundary changes get rid of effective representatives by sleight of hand whilst professing to be wholly independent. See my blog Rutlandshire.blogspot.com for one way an election was fixed here in the UK in 2011. Written before I realised my emails and blogs were likely to be hacked by ACPO and PRISM via a colluding Google. More recently at a local election this year every ballot paper seemed to be marked in exactly the same way - with a black cross corner to corner to elect Stan Stubbs as a local parish councillor. We in the UK are equally as corrupt as any other country but we do it much more subtly as a rule - via men's clubs and untraceable connections. The global fifth column is n't going to reform itself when it has smothered the fourth estate, has a colluding police and judiciary with placemen in position to put the most anodyne and benign interpretation on any skullduggery carried out byte an anarchic establishment. If you read my blog you will see Mr Nyack from the Electoral Commissioner"s Office took the lead initially. Who was Mr Nyack? He was the publicity officer! Now why would a mere publicity officer be pretending to be something he isn't? And why would the Council's legal officer have insisted I contact Mr Nyack at the Electoral Commissioner's Office?
PPP is afraid of MQM's popularity and even Mr. Zardari is convinced that MQM will again win the Local Government Elections from Hyderabad.
instead of serving masses diring the five years tenure of PPP, the previous government was involved how to divide the municipal limits for the personal gains of PPP.
I would suggest that instead of participating in the local government elections, MQM should go to the court of law on the issue of delimitations and once the matter is decided by the court of law, only then MQM should participate in the local bodies election.
The prime job of PPP Senerators, MNA's and MPA's was nothing else except that "mal banao" and every one has made tons and tons of money.
The corruption was not restricted upto the legislators but all Sindhi speaking people who were having connection with the PPP legislators and PPP government have made tons and tons of money and have become filthy rich.
One small example is how Sindhis were benefited from PPP tenure is that every one who had connection in PPP government after making money have moved from two or three bed rooms apartments from different areas of Karachi to the posh localities of Clifton and Defence Areas of Karachi.
Those Sindhis who were living as tenants in two or three bed rooms apartments have now become owners of four bedrooms apartment like Creek Vista and majority have purchased brandnew houses and open plots in Defence Phase VI, VII and VIII.
The most unfortunate part of Pakistan is that there is no Accountibility in the country, as their are very few people who are honest and the rest are all corrupt.
In Urdu "Jis Ka Jahan Haat Marney Ka Mauqa Lagta Hai, Haat Mar Jaata Hai". "Khoob Kamao, aur Maal Bano, Kunkey Zindagi Isi Ka Nam Hai".