The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has rejected the revival of the Commissionerate System in Sindh and decided to contest the decision in courts. Calling the decision “the worst form of dictatorship”, the MQM announced a public contact campaign in order to mould public opinion.
Addressing a press briefing after the joint meeting of the MQM Coordination Committee in London and Karachi simultaneously, MQM Deputy Convener Farooq Sattar said the MQM had rejected the revival of the Commissionerate System in principle. He said its restoration reflected “an inherent autocratic approach of the government”.
He said taking power away from the local governments and empowering the bureaucracy through the revival of the obsolete system was patently dictatorial and autocratic. All democracies of the world had a well-established local government system. The absence of a vibrant local government system was in fact a manifestation of autocracy and concentration of powers because system of local government helped in empowering the people at the grassroots level.
Sattar said the imposition of the Commissionerate System violated Article 140-A of the constitution. The MQM had ensured that the local government system could not be dismantled by the 18th Amendment as well. Deputy Convener of the MQM Anis Qaimkhani said there was a conspiracy to create division in the rural and urban Sindh. However, he said the MQM would defeat all such attempts by forging unity in the province.
He said that the MQM was being punished for leaving the coalition government.
