The Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO)-2001 expired on Friday, but the provincial government has been unable to restore the commissionerate system in the province due to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s opposition. As a result, the people of Sindh awakened on Saturday to a province without a local body system.
Leaders of the two major stakeholders in the province – the MQM and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – have decided to introduce a new local government system after Eidul Azha.
In the meantime, it is likely that an interim system would be introduced in the province through another ordinance of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan.
“Legal experts are working on it, and will provide a solution to the legal controversy. There is no legal gap, however, and if a gap arises, it will be filled,” said MQM’s Dr Sagheer Ahmed while speaking at a joint press conference at Chief Minister’s House after attending the fourth consecutive round of meetings between MQM and PPP leaders to discuss the basics of a new local government system.
PPP’s Pir Mazharul Haq said the coalition partners are going to introduce a new local government system in the province after Eid.
Leaders of both the parties repeatedly ignored queries regarding the local body system that has replaced or will replace the one that has expired.
The leaders asked the media personnel to wait until after Eid since that is when a new LG system would be introduced and it would be accepted by all.
Ahmed said his party has not set forth any conditions, adding that MQM leaders are participating in the meetings with an open mind and heart.
He said the new LG system would be prepared keeping in view Sindh’s interests, maintenance of law and order, abolishment of the rural-urban divide, and supremacy of the law and Constitution.
He also said under the new system, nobody’s rights would be grabbed, and instead of hatred and differences, reconciliation would be developed among the people of the province.
“We shall eliminate such apprehensions forever. The MQM has not made anything a matter of ego for achieving these goals,” he added.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Ahmed Shah also spoke on the occasion through telephone from Saudi Arabia.
The chief minister said the issue of the local government system is not so big that it could not be resolved, adding that it is because of Benazir Bhutto’s vision and President Asif Ali Zardari’s reconciliatory policy that the issue would be amicably resolved.
The religious affairs minister said both the parties have eliminated the seeds of hatred that had been sown in the province.
He hoped that the politics of hatred would end through this spirit. “This is yet another passage in the new political history written during the four years of this government,” he added.
The meeting was also attended by PPP’s Ayaz Soomro and Agha Siraj Durrani, and MQM’s Syed Sardar Ahmed, Raza Haroon, Waseem Akhtar and Kunwar Naveed Jameel.
