Yet another meeting between the two major coalition partners – the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – failed to evolve consensus on a new system of local governance in the province, as the parties were unable to resolve the contentious issues in the two drafts prepared separately by them.
A meeting was held on Saturday at the Sindh Chief Minister’s House with Pir Mazharul Haq leading the PPP delegation and the MQM team led by Syed Sardar Ahmed. Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F)’s Adviser to Chief Minister on Special Education Imtiaz Shaikh also attended the meeting.
According to a handout issued from the Chief Minister’s House after the meeting, it was decided that representatives of both parties will consult with their leaders on all suggestions and meet after Ashura to reach a final conclusion.
An official privy to the matter told Pakistan Today that the bone of contention between the parties remains the issues pertaining to powers of elected nazims and bureaucracy, land utilisation, delimitation of revenue limits in Karachi and restoration of Hyderabad and Karachi districts. “Both the parties stuck to their arguments,” he said.
According to sources, the MQM is trying to convince the PPP into leaving with the district nazims most of the powers in the new local governance system that were accorded to them in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001, including allotment of land, writing annual confidential reports (ACRs) of district officers, etc. The party also wants to keep Karachi and Hyderabad as districts, instead of the five administrative divisions in the province.
The PPP, however, wants to empower the Sindh Revenue Department for supervising matters pertaining to land utilisation and exempt the district bureaucracy of ACRs. The party is also trying to convince its coalition partner for changing the revenue limits of Karachi under the Supreme Court’s directives.
It is worth mentioning that Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro had told the media that the PPP and the MQM have submitted their drafts on the new local bodies system and the Sindh Law Department was evaluating both the drafts in the light of the 1973 Constitution.
Talking with Pakistan Today, PML-F’s Shaikh said he had been invited to participate in the discussion at the meeting.
He said the PPP team has handed over its draft on the new local government system to him and the PML-F will evaluate it; however, the MQM was yet to give him the draft prepared by its team.
The adviser also reiterated his party’s demand that all coalition partners should be taken on board on the issue.
