Ready to accept some changes in LG bill, says CM Sindh after Governor’s objections

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday asserted that the provincial government would accept some changes proposed by Governor Imran Ismail to Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021, while refusing to budge on the control of hospitals and schools.

Last month, the Sindh Assembly had unanimously passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021. However, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has refused to give his assent to the bill and returned it to the Sindh Assembly for reconsideration.

Under the Constitution of Pakistan, Sindh Assembly could have passed the same bill again without any change to force the Governor to grant it assent. However, the chief minister today held a press conference to announce that his government was ready to accept some of the proposed changes.

Speaking to journalists, the Chief Minister asserted that the LG (Amendment) Bill would empower the people of Karachi, adding that his government was still open to incorporating justified inputs of all political stakeholders to make the law better.

He further said his government had discussed the proposed amendments with the opposition parties before bringing them into the assembly. “It was the opposition’s proposal that towns should have been created in place of DMCs and now they have started playing politics,” he added.

Murad Ali Shah asserted that the provincial would remove a clause from the bill that allowed “any person” to be elected as mayor or deputy mayor, chairman or vice-chairman of the council without contesting the local government elections.

However, the chief minister pointed out that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) in the past got their “any persons” elected as mayor when they formed local governments in Karachi and Hyderabad.

According to the CM, the government has also accepted the governor’s proposal on the voting method for the election of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice-chairmen of councils. “The election would be held using a show of hands vote instead of secrete ballots”, he added.

Shah also said the objection about tax collection on immovable property was the result of a misunderstanding. “The older law allowed both KMC and DMCs to collect the tax but in practice, it was collected by DCMs,” the CM said adding that under the new law town councils, which replace DMCs, would collect the tax.

The chief minister said that he had also accepted the proposal on the term of the council, which will commence from the first meeting as proposed by the Governor.

However, the Sindh chief minister rejected the governor’s objection about the control of hospitals, schools, and several other government departments and functions.

“The educational institutions and health facilities have been taken away from the local bodies in the public interest because they have failed to run them properly, but in their place, we have given them all the municipal functions and representation in other civic agencies,” he added.

However, Shah announced that the government was going to introduce a new schedule 9 to the local government law. “Under schedule 9, relevant health, education, and police officials will submit quarterly reports to the union council of their area,” he said, adding that this has never been done before,” he said.

The LG bill

Under the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021 the control of hospitals, schools and some other departments as well as some of the government functions have been transferred from local bodies to the provincial government.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and other opposition parties have been opposing the bill. Earlier this week, Governor Ismail refused to sign the LG bill into law, sending it back with nine objections.

The governor himself confirmed the move while appearing on a private news channel on Monday night describing the recently passed bill as a move to make local government a ‘toothless’ system run by a ‘dummy’ mayor.

He categorically said that it was unacceptable and mentioned several ‘flaws’ in the bill, which made it controversial and based on ‘certain agenda’.

“I have returned the bill and asked Sindh Assembly to fix it before the final nod,” said Mr Ismail. “The bill in fact negates the spirit of democracy and it finally brings the local governments under the provincial government with no authority or power and disallowing every source which could generate resources for the LG representatives,” he added.