• Mayor says town chairmen now get full administrative control over employees, assets
• Many elected representatives still without office spaces

KARACHI: While the Sindh government has terminated the interim system of “transition” in the provincial local government set-up, chairmen of 25 Town Municipal Committees (TMC) in Karachi have yet to be practically empowered to exercise their administrative and financial authority within their respective jurisdictions under the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), it emerged on Friday.

The transition period was introduced by the provincial government after Karachi’s seven district municipal corporations (DMCs) were replaced by 25 TMCs.

Under the transition system, the government appointed “transition officers” and gave them full administrative and financial powers to utilise funds during the transition period, while the elected representatives had no control over the employees and the funds under the seven defunct DMCs.

The local government department had constituted a divisional transition team for Karachi and district transition teams (DTTs) for the rest of the districts in the province to formulate a plan for transition in a smooth and transparent manner beside ensuring fair distribution of the assets, liabilities and human resources.

During the transition period, many chairmen and vice-chairmen of towns and UCs were not even provided offices or sitting places as all powers were being exercised by local government secretary and “transition officers”.

They delay in termination of the transition system had raised concern and resentment among the elected local government representatives, especially those belonging to the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami which had moved the Sindh High Court against transition officers.

On Friday, the local government department issued notifications regarding the termination of transition system. It claimed that the chairmen of the TMCs would now have all the financial and administrative powers to run their respective local councils with all council officers under their administrative control as transition officers ceased to hold their respective offices.

The local government department stated that the local councils would ensure the distribution of the human resources, assets and liabilities after due verification as enshrined in their respective transition reports on immediate basis.

It said that in case the newly constituted or reconstituted local council had any grievance with regard to the distribution of employees, assets and liabilities, it might be pointed out to the Provincial Transition Cell in a fortnight of issuance of the notification.

While most of the elected town chairman had been struggling to secure office spaces since their election, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said that they would now have administrative control over the town officers and employees and assets of their respective towns.

However, it appears that the distribution of human resource, assets and liabilities from the defunct DMCs to TMCs and UCs is still far from over.

Talking to Dawn on the condition of anonymity, a town chairman said that he had not officially been informed about the termination of transition system. He said that the transition officer concerned even did not share the list and number of the employees to be transferred to different UCs in his town.

He said that some of the town chairmen had unofficially obtained information about the bifurcation and distribution of human resource and assets of their respective towns.

“I, like many other town chairmen, have not been given any office or place to sit to meet people,” he lamented.

He said that the offices of the town chairmen were bound to be crowded after the termination of the transition system in the city. “We should be provided offices without any delay,” he demanded.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2023