As most of its political allies have parted ways with the PPP-led coalition government in the Center and Sindh in protest against the recently-promulgated Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance 2012, the ruling PPP justifies the most-objectionable dual-system based law citing the example of India where two parallel systems of panchayat and municipalities are in place in villages and urban centers, respectively.
Also the PPP conceded for the first time that the controversial SPLGO 2012 was promulgated on the “insistence” of one of its coalition partners which, the opponents of the new law claim, was the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Shazia Marri, a member of National Assembly and former information minister of Sindh, responded at length to the queries raised by the opponents of SPLGO 2012, in an exclusive telephonic conversation with Pakistan Today.
Marri said the new law was “need based” and the opposition to it was ill-thought-out with the parties involved aiming to take political mileage out of the sensitive issue. “They first need to read and understand the document after which they are welcome to give suggestions for improvement. They claim without knowing anything!” she said.
The MNA counter-questioned the opponents of the new law, saying, “If they did not want Pervez Musharraf’s law of 2000-2001, then what’s the problem? And if they wanted the 1979 ordinance, then this is better than that too since it creates four new metropolitans including Karachi.”
She recalled that the law or system of local governance dated back to some 129 years and it was the system that gave decision-making and administrative rights to the locals. Reacting to the claims of Sindhi nationalist leader Jalal Mehmood Shah, the former information minister said “the so-called nationalist rather provincialist” was now claiming that the new ordinance was Musharraf’s law.
Marri said Shah himself had contested the local government elections in 2005 under the dictator’s ordinance (SLGO 2001). “But, obviously lost. So why did he not opt to do so then?” she asked. Moreover, she claimed, the 2001 ordinance had bypassed the provincial government even when there was no provision of LG system in the constitution at that time.
“Now after the 18th Amendment, an induction of Article 140A allows the province to make a law to create a system for devolution of issues to the locals,” she said. Recalling her party’s tough days on opposition benches during Musharraf’s rule, Marri said she had witnessed no resolution against the Kalabagh Dam during the five-year reign of Musharraf so much so that the PPP was never allowed to bring it up!
“I witnessed only PPP walking out of the Sindh Assembly hall when a resolution was passed in favor of only locals eligible for jobs in multinational in their areas!” “I witnessed no party except the PPP who strongly condemned and protested against the assassination of Akbar Bugti”. “Where were these sons and daughters of the soil then,” she questioned. The PPP leader hinted that her government in Sindh would bring the ordinance in the provincial legislature for a debate. The government, she said, had to make a law under Article 140A and it did so. The former provincial minister said the ordinance would come to the Sindh Assembly where it could be discussed. She said the changes for improvement were always encouraged from her side.
“The ordinance might be an insistence from one coalition partner but it’s worked out sensibly and two previous ordinances were also studied carefully before making the new ordinance with major improvements,” Marri stated conceding for the first time that the new law was backed by the MQM. But, she said, there was always room for discussion provided one was willing to handle it passionately and not for “political mileage”.
Asked how far her side was likely to go to protect the disputed ordinance, the former provincial information minister came with the meaningful reply that: “Think positive, results are positive.”