KARACHI: The Sindh government has constituted a seven member committee delegated to work on amendments relating to local government laws in the province. The government has also requested the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), nationalist parties in the province and other political groups to submit their recommendations on the matter within five days' time.
The committee was constituted during a meeting of the Sindh cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
The meeting discussed the Supreme Court's recent directive over the holding of local government elections in the month of September.
Speaking to media representatives after the meeting, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said the provincial government had constituted the seven member committee to work on amendments of local government laws and had invited recommendations from all political parties on the matter.
On a question relating to fresh delimitation of constituencies, Memon said if the general elections could be held based on existing delimitation, why could local government polls not be administered using a similar approach.
Sindh has seen a number of jumps between laws adopted to guide the province's local government system. The October 2012 promulgation of the Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance, 2012, formed the most marked episode in this respect. The SPLGO was preceded by the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 1979, in other words the commissionerate system, which came into force after the November 2011 lapsing of the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2010. The SPLGO, which was passed in concert with the wishes of the MQM, had drawn much ire from the province's nationalist parties. It was repealed in February 2013 and was replaced with the commissionerate system.
Also during today's meeting, the provincial cabinet declared unlawful the hiring done during the tenure of the caretaker provincial government.