THATTA, Dec 29 Federal Minister for Local Bodies Razzaq Thaheem has said that he does not foresee an end to district government system but some amendments are necessary to streamline the system.

Talking to journalist at Makli circuit house where the minister had arrived on Monday to attend a meeting with nazims and district administration and review development schemes.

The minister said that the region had local bodies' system for the last 150 years, adding that former president Ayub Khan renamed it as Basic Democracy system and President Musharraf adopted it with some changes.

He said that its success was evident from massive development schemes being carried out under the system. He said that in Thatta district some 328 villages were electrified under the system.

He said that a major fault in the system was that nazims of union councils were members of district council and due to their engagements in the council, they lost interest in the affairs of their UCs.The minister avoided a reply when he was told that over 90 per cent rural water supply schemes in the district were dysfunctional, compelling people to consume contaminated water of ditches and trenches which had caused a rise in the cases of hepatitis-B and C and other water-borne disease.

About bifurcation of Thatta district and creation of a new district, the minister said that the decision would be made after a consensus among the elected representatives of the district.

RAIDS The provincial deputy secretary of law department, Iqbal Ahmed Khwaja, raided the offices of the deputy public prosecutor and district attorney here on Monday.

The deputy secretary found that deputy public prosecutor Khan Mohammad Kashmiri and district attorney Aslam Umrani had remained absent from their offices for a couple of days.

He found a computer and an air-conditioner at the office of the district attorney office were missing.

The deputy secretary told journalists that he would report the matter to Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro.