KARACHI, Oct 7 The local government system is likely to be wrapped up in Sindh by Oct 16, with the appointment of administrators shortly afterwards in place of town and district nazims to run the affairs of local government institutions till the next local bodies elections.

This was said by the leader of the opposition in the city district council, Saeed Ghani, while speaking to journalists after delivering a lecture on the local government system at the Urban Resource Centre on Wednesday.

Mr Ghani, who is also the Karachi division general secretary of the Pakistan People's Party, further revealed that amendments being made to the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001 contained a number of proposals such as carving out six or more districts in Karachi and the revival of the commissioner system in the province.

Asked if there would be six or more district governments in Karachi and a similar number of district nazims once the amendments pertaining to the creation of more districts in the city was made to the SLGO, 2001, he replied in the affirmative.

“Isn't it illogical that Karachi which prior to the introduction of the new local government system was a division and had five districts was turned into just one district, while four districts were carved out in Hyderabad division, two districts each in Larkana and Dadu division?” he questioned.

In reply to a query about the elections schedule, Mr Ghani said that the elections could be held as soon as the proposed amendments to the SLGO, 2001 were approved by the Sindh Assembly.

He said that the Sindh government had tabled a bill in the assembly for cancellation of all illegal allotment and occupation of amenity plots, including parks and playgrounds since 1994. But, the PPP's coalition partner in the provincial government had been opposing the passage of the bill on the grounds that cancellation of such plots should be made effective from the date the bill was adopted by the assembly, he added.

The local government system in other three provinces might be done away with as there was a general consensus against it, the PPP leader said. However, he reiterated, the present local government system in Sindh would stay with some amendments made to the SLGO, 2001.

While delivering a lecture on the local government system at the URC earlier, he said that while provincial government departments had been devolved to city district governments under the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, the devolution of federal government departments to the provinces could not take place.

He said that the city governments should not be overburdened with so many departments, adding that functions pertaining to water, sewerage, drainage, traffic management, road network, parks and playgrounds should be the subjects of the city governments. All other departments, including education and health, should not be devolved at all, he said.

He said that although the local government system functioned as democracy's nursery, it was ironical that all the three local government systems had been introduced in the country during the regimes of Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf.

He was, however, of the view that the 1979 local government system was better than the present local government system because in the former system, the city's mayor and city council members used to have representation in the Karachi Port Trust, Railways and the Karachi Electric Supply Company.

“Isn't it a major flaw in the present local government system that the nazims of districts and towns, who are indirectly elected, have been delegated financial powers, while the nazims and members of union councils who are elected directly do not enjoy such powers?” he posed a question.

Mr Ghani said the city government claimed to have undertaken a number of mega projects in Karachi, but unfortunately the projects were never discussed in the city council.

URC Joint Director Zahid Farooq moderated the programme.