HYDERABAD: Members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) protested against what they described as discrimination in award of uplift works by Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain in the Hyderabad Municipal Corpora­tion’s (HMC) council meeting which wound up a 32-point heavy agenda in one sitting on Monday.

The house approved a resolution for regularisation of services of the HMC employees appointed in 2009. The session started with a rumpus caused by a protest of council’s reserved members, including women, against non-payment of allowance to them.

Mohammad Ahmed Jafri led the group of the protesting members who later joined the proceedings after persuasion by their colleagues. The mayor told them that he had requested the Sindh government and now the decision rested with it.

The house approved the entire agenda, but about item no. 27 relating to development works, opposition members led by PPP’s Pasha Qazi and Zubairuddin Siddiqui rose to point out that roads’ repairs identified by them were not included in the list which was being approved on Monday.

Since the item was approved by majority of the members, the mayor assured them that their grievances would be redressed by making amendments. “I mentioned the Madina mosque road for repair, but it was not in the list, therefore, approval of this item should be revoked,” said Pasha Qazi.

MQM’s Abdul Hafeez supported him that works pointed out by him were not reflected in the list of 43 works prepared on mayor’s special instruction and approved on Monday. His party colleague Sohail Kaimkhani also made an identical complaint only to be told by the chair that all the 32 items, barring a few, had been approved.

The house also approved an out of agenda resolution of Javed Jabbar regarding approval of the cases of 11 employees by

the departmental promotion committee (DPC) who were demoted by the local government department following recommendations of a committee appointed by Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission.

Jabbar demanded that the DPC should be held in line with the judicial commission directives as the mayor also had powers for employees’ service-related matters under Section 80(c) of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013.

At a cost of Rs9.5 million the house approved renovation of the Quaid-i-Millat, Nursery Autobahn and Mustafa Park Noorani Basti parks.

Yaqoob Qureshi drew chair’s attention to the fact that Noorani Basti park had been established at a huge cost, but it was allowed to be destroyed and lately it had become a practice that those parks were rented out for circus and other activities for Rs2,000 per day.

“I seek your ruling on the point that use of parks for any such commercial activity like circus, fair etc, should be banned,” said Qureshi. But the mayor did not give any ruling.

Pasha Qazi expressed concern over increasing number of dog-bite cases. He claimed that poison used by the HMC health staff was not effective. The mayor said that medicine/poison for killing stray dogs was being procured from Haripur Hazara after complaints regarding the previous procurement.

Abdul Rasheed and some other members complained that the HMC staff usually did not turn up in union committees despite requests.

The house approved resolution of Majid Khan and Arsalan Hyder Gaddi for regularisation of services of those employees who were appointed in 2009 in HMC. Mr Majid said the cases of those employees which were sub judice should be separated for regularisation later on.

Arsalan Hyder raised a point as to how Municipal Commissioner Nasrullah Abbasi — who is from the provincial revenue department — was posted in the HMC as he was himself hit by the Supreme Court’s verdict. The chair asked him to submit his question in writing and he would get the reply. He was informed that the HMC’s tax department collected tax on its 3,022 properties. No property or rooftop was leased out as it did not fall in the department’s domain.

Ismail Shaikh interjected to say that all shops in cloth market area were leased out by the HMC. In response to his question, Umair Ali was told that the HMC had four libraries, including Hasrat Mohani library which was run by the Sindh culture department. The mayor said the Sindh government had been requested that the library’s control should be handed back to the HMC which had established it.

The house deferred item on the proposed agreement for garbage lifting with the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board in Hyderabad. The mayor said that before signing the agreement, it was essential that this issue should be thoroughly discussed by members privately and then in council. Resolutions for contracts/works, drains’ desilting, holding of “low-income markets” of HMC, removal of encroachment around the civil hospital, appointment of 200 non-Muslim sanitary workers and ban on liquor’s sale were also approved.

It was also noticed that Mayor Tayyab Hussain and Deputy Mayor Syed Suhail Mashhadi kept using their mobile phones without any qualms in the session.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2019