KARACHI, Oct 2: Leaders of the Sindh coalition government’s estranged parliamentary parties have demanded that the government roll back the new local government law which, they said, was a conspiracy to divide Sindh.

The Monday and Tuesday strikes in the province against the law should serve as an eye-opener for the government, said Imtiaz Shaikh, the Sindh secretary-general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and spokesperson for the lawmakers belonging to the PML-F, National People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (Mahar group).

He was speaking at a press conference after their meeting at his residence in the Defence Housing Authority on Tuesday evening.

In reply to a question, he said their colleagues would formulate a future strategy to continue the protest after a meeting with leaders of the Sindh Bachayo Committee and other nationalist parties.

He waved to the newsmen a local newspaper in which the Sindh government had published a full-page advertisement on the law “to mislead the people” and referred to some of the sections from the law to prove that the SPLGO 2012 had administratively divided Sindh and the local government had been empowered at the cost of the provincial government.

Mr Shaikh said there were 35 objectionable provisions in which the most undesirable was provision 14(5) which gave the local government liberty to begin any activity even if it was not done with its own finances. “This is a limitless authority,” he added.

Under that provision, the local government can apparently recruit police to meet its requirements of law and order, procure police vans and raise a force superior to what the provincial government had under its command. There could be a situation when provincial and district police forces confronted each other, he said.

Similarly, district magistrates’ authority had been vested in mayors who might not have the requisite training and education.

He said the CM’s powers to set aside a mayor’s orders were confined to 90 days and subject to the confirmation by the PLGC.

The CM had also to give reasons while setting aside an order or a resolution of metropolitan/ district/ town whereas when any order/resolution of taluka/town was to be set aside by a mayor/chairman, he needed neither to mention the reasons nor to send it to the PLGC.

Chief officer has been made chief coordination officer of metropolitan /district administration, he said, adding that it was unheard of in the past local government systems. “What will be the role of a deputy commissioner/ commissioner?” he said. In the new law only the first schedule had been published while from the second to eighth schedules were yet to be finalised.

Mr Shaikh said in Karachi five districts were merged into one metropolitan city while in the interior of the province each district of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur were separate metropolitans. He said it was ironic that the chief minister could be removed by a simple majority, but for removing a mayor/ chairman a two-thirds majority was required.

He reiterated his challenge to Daniyal Aziz who alleged that Pir Pagara was being misguided on the local government law and said who could mislead Pir Pagara who was not only the PML-F chief but also the spiritual leader of more than eight million Hurs.

Mr Shaikh criticised Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq for using inappropriate remarks about a woman lawmaker and advised him to apologise to her for that.

He urged the chief justice of Pakistan to order an inquiry into the use of brutal force in Nawabshah that resulted in the loss of a precious life.

Shahryar Mahar of the PML-Q said the Sindh Assembly speaker had violated the rules by not giving time to members to read the bill after laying it in the house.

Jam Madad Ali of the PML-F deplored that his party’s lawmaker Marvi Rashdi had submitted a joint resolution before the session began to be taken up after relaxation of the rules, but its was bulldozed by the speaker in a similar manner as other resolutions of the party condemning the hate movie.