HYDERABAD, Sept 25: Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that the Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance, 2012 is not a final document and it could be amended in the light of productive input.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, he said that the SPLGO did not place Sindh under two different local government systems.

He said that the provincial assembly was the proper forum to reject it or otherwise.He said the SLGO, 2001 was given by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf and the provincial governments were not empowered to touch the law until 2009.

After the constitutional term of the SLGO 2001 was completed, the government got rid of it and the commissioner system and the local government system of 1979 was restored to the province. Administrators were also appointed and TMAs were kept intact, he said.

He said that neither the SLGO 2001 nor the 1979 LG system were free of defects. Both had their deficiencies and were not addressing people’s issues, he added.

He said he himself was not in favour of a system in which elected representatives were subservient to bureaucrats. He said he still remembered how a deputy commissioner being the secretary of their respective district councils used to behave with the elected chairman of a district council.

“The PPP in its manifesto of 1993 had given the concept of district government under which public representatives were to be empowered as much as possible,” he said, adding that the idea behind this concept was to rid public representatives of domination of the bureaucracy.

That’s why the issue was debated to look into the finer points of the SLGOs 2001 and 1979 and to come up with a new local government law.

He said that a core committee of elected representatives was formed to debate the issue and finally the present local government law was produced. “The SPLGO 2012 can be amended by the Sindh Assembly as it hasn’t become a law,” he said, adding that the PPP and the MQM could have passed it with an absolute majority of 150 votes in the assembly but it was avoided only to seek input of elected representatives.

He criticised those opposing the new law and said that Gen Musharraf had given the 2001 law under which Karachi had a different type of the city government and rest of the districts had different ones.

“But these people did not raise voice against it. These critics were themselves aspiring to become district nazims then,” he said. He said that nobody had talked about a division of Sindh when Karachi remained under the city government and other districts had a different system for nine years during the dictatorial regime.

He said that Larkana used to have a population of 200,000 in the past but now it has 800,000 people. “Under the present law five divisional headquarters are given metropolitan corporation status. In the 1979 LG law Karachi was the only metropolitan corporation and even Hyderabad was a municipal corporation while the remaining districts had district councils.”

Mr Khuhro said those opposing the SPLGO 2012 must remember that domiciles were still issued on the basis of urban and rural population.

He said that it was not mandatory that any ordinance be presented soon after its promulgation and it could be tabled before the house within 90 days.

He avoided a direct comment on a recent three-day ultimatum given by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to the PPP government. He said that it was premature to comment on it since the decision of the MQM coordination committee had not yet been endorsed by Altaf Hussain.

He said that he was unaware of the MQM demands that followed this ultimatum.