MQM-P to host APC on amended Sindh Local Govt law today

KARACHI: An All Parties Conference being hosted by the MQM-Pakistan being held today over Sindh’s new local government law, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The parties attending the moot will decide a joint line of action against the controversial local bodies legislation, sources said.

“The conference will review the amendments made in already an impotent local government system,” the MQM-P said.

The MQM-P has invited Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-Functional, PML-N, ANP, PML-Q, Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Pakistan Democratic Party and JUI-F in the conference, party said in a statement.

MQM-P had announced to convene an all-parties conference over local bodies bill approved by the Sindh Assembly.

MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that the amendments in the local government act have paralysed the local bodies system in the metropolis.

Governor Sindh Imran Ismail recently rejected the Sindh Local Government (amendment) bill 2021 and returned it to the Sindh Assembly for reconsideration while raising objections.

The governor said that the bill was against article 140 of the Constitution that empowers the grass root level of the government.

He further pointed out the elimination of the district municipal corporations and replacing them with the town system would create an administrative void.

He also objected over the secret balloting for the election of mayor, saying it could lead to horse-trading in the process.

Imran Ismail also pointed out an anomaly in schedule 5 of the local government act and said that the lack of authority for municipal authorities to collect tax on the immovable property will lead to a financial crisis for the municipal councils.

The Sindh Assembly on November 26 unanimously passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2021.