KARACHI, Nov 25: The City Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday proposing a 20 per cent increase in the honorarium of future city nazim and naib nazim, town nazims and naib nazims and all members of the city district, town and union councils in view of rising inflation.

According to the resolution, an honorarium of Rs80,000 has been proposed for the city nazim, Rs50,000 for the city naib nazim, Rs40,000 for the town nazim, Rs25,000 for the town naib nazim, Rs20,000 for all members of the city council, Rs10,000 for all members of town councils and Rs5,000 for all members of union councils.

However, this increase will be subject to the approval of the government which is empowered to make any changes which will be applicable to future nazims, naib nazims and members of the council.

The proposal to raise the honorarium was made according to Section 39(q) of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.

During the financial year of 2006-07 there was an increase of 15 per cent in salaries followed by an increase of 20 per cent in 2008-09 to enable the salaried classes to face the inflationary pressure. Since nazims and naib nazims and council members do not draw any salary and receive an honorarium against their services, the raise was said to be necessary as they were also affected by the price-hike.

The resolution was moved by the house leader, Asif Siddiqui, and treasury members Mohammad Arshad Qureshi and Sarwat Arif.

Surprisingly, the opposition benches did not show any interest in the debate and most of them left the house. The lone opposition member who recorded his dissent vote was Fazlur Rehman.

When the resolution was submitted in the house for debate, it was adopted by majority votes.

Earlier, when the house resumed its proceedings, senior presiding officer Masud Mehmood ignored the submission of opposition leader Saeed Ghani regarding a resolution for naming a city road after veteran Pakistan Movement leader Mahmoud A. Haroon for his services to Karachi.

In his ruling he said that the council should first debate the house agenda.

Later, opposition member Begum Mumtaz Shamin drew the attention of the chair towards her resolution regarding violence against women.

She argued that the resolution was very important in the context of abridgement of women rights.

Presenting a dismal picture of cases of violence against women, she said they were being subjected to physical and mental torture at workplaces, in public transport and after that they faced domestic violence.

Demanding a separate and safe shelter home for women, she said that police stations, jails and the so-called Darul Aman were unsafe for women where they were tortured and lived in constant fear. She suggested registration of maids and woman domestic workers who worked in houses but did not enjoy any rights and were always made target of violence. She made an impassioned appeal to the chair and house members to dedicate the day to debate the issue of violence against women.

Reciprocating sentiments of the opposition member, house leader Asif Siddiqui endorsed her views. But he did not agree with the suggestion of dedicating the house business to women rights violation, saying that there were equally important other issues on the agenda which needed debate.

Upon this, the senior presiding officer also ruled out the suggestion of the opposition member and allowed the members of both sides of the aisle to make their submissions on the issue.

Several members of the house, mostly women councillors, took part in the debate and defended women rights and condemned violence against women.

Mohammad Islamuddin said that “Islam gives a highly esteemed status to women, which no other religion can provide.” He said that Western culture and their society downgraded women where a woman was treated as a “showbiz model”.

The opposition leader called for granting women their due respected place in society according to Islamic laws and treating them with equality.

Winding up the debate, Mr Siddiqui maintained that there was consensus among house members that the rights of women should be respected as envisaged in Islam. However, he said that the ground realities were painful. He said women were facing worst type of violence in the interior of Sindh and other parts of the country where they were killed in the name of honour. Endorsing the suggestion of new shelter houses for women, he said such houses should be established by the city government.

The house leader also pointed out that a number of shelter houses for women were being run and managed by NGOs. He called for conducting an inquiry into their affairs.

Thereafter, the council adopted a resolution which called for establishing a shelter home for women where they could stay in peace and could fight for their legal rights.

Later, a lack of interest was shown by the opposition in the proceedings of the house. Several members left the house enabling the treasury members to pass the remaining resolutions without any debate. In a short span of time the house adopted eight resolutions.

A resolution urged the Sindh government to withdraw the notification suggesting a 50 paisa reduction in public transport fares and proposed a cut of Rs2 to provide relief to the people.

Another resolution welcomed the decision of the federal government of upgrading temporary employees from grade one to 15 as permanent employees and urged the city government to make its temporary employees permanent.

The council through another resolution expressed its concern over falling standard of education, saying that 3,000 schools were housed in 900 buildings.

The resolution called for establishment of a single authority in such buildings where more than one school exists.

Through another resolution the management of the KESC was urged to reinstate all those temporary employees who had worked in the organisation for the past five to six years and whose services were terminated in the first week of November. The resolution demanded their reinstatement and called for making the employees permanent.

In another resolution the council referred to a report on bylaws submitted by the mother and child committee to the district hospital committee.

The council also approved a resolution which urged the provincial government to allow the residents of Malir to submit the fees of domiciles and PRCs in the National Bank of Pakistan, Model Colony branch instead of NBP Swedish Colony branch situated in Bin Qasim town.

Later, the senior presiding officer adjourned the house indefinitely.