Opposition parties amplify criticism of ruling parties

MQM demands taxes for local bodies, PML-N says PPP deprived people of basic rights

HYDERABAD: The opposition parties facing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the second phase of the local government (LG) elections have amplified their criticism against the ruling party.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has called for devolution of financial and administrative authority to LG institutions. "The provincial government should also share receipts from the sales tax on services, motor vehicle tax and property tax with the LG institutions while also allowing them to collect these taxes," asked party leader Farooq Sattar at a press conference on Monday.

Sattar criticised the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of ripping the local bodies of powers provided to them under the 2001 local government system of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.



"The provinces have accumulated so much power which they can't even utilise," he said. "They don't have that capacity," he added, referring to the increased Sindh government's control over organisations, such as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Hyderabad Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency.

Still he made an emphatic demand for empowered local bodies, arguing in favour of authorising the mayors in the LG system to establish community policing and for madrassa reforms. Sattar accused the two big parties of trying to hijack the LG elections through rigging but ruled out opting for a boycott from the process.

"I urge, I beg the political parties that are ruling in the name of democracy to avoid rigging and usurping power [of the local bodies]," he said, adding that a weakened LG system will also lead to a weakened democracy.

The MQM leader said the issue of creating new provinces or administrative units in Pakistan should be discussed in the parliament. "The parties against new provinces should either prove us wrong in the parliamentary debate or listen to us," he said. According to him, up to 20 administrative units can be created in Pakistan.



Sattar told that a committee to oversee the Karachi operation will soon be formed. It will comprise retired judges, each from Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides one more nominated member from Karachi. The committee will ensure a 'civilian oversight' on the operation.

Sattar demanded a Rs20-billion package from the Sindh government, which he criticised for squandering trillions of rupees over the last seven years, for Hyderabad district's development works.

PML-N rally

In a retaliatory show of political strength, PML-N's influential Shirazi group of Thatta held rallies on Monday, welcomed by thousands of people along several kilometres of their road journey. The Shirazi family, which has three of the five MPAs from Thatta and Sujawal districts and one of the two MNAs, is fighting to retain its political clout in Thatta.

The family, which earlier remained part of PML-Quaid, won both the local government elections in 2001 and 2005. Syed Shafqat Shah Sherazi was twice elected nazim from Thatta. The group is contesting the current LG elections from the platform of Sherazi-Jam Ittehad. The Jam family is another influential family from the district.

"The PPP rule has given only corruption and qabza [encroachment] mafia to the people of Thatta. They have been deprived of their basic rights" alleged MPA Syed Aijaz Ali Shah Shirazi. He said, despite all the pre-poll rigging, PML-N candidates will win the LG elections in both the districts. The group organised two separate rallies in Thatta and Sujawal.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2015.