KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Sunday said that the fresh changes made to the Sindh local government law divested the public representatives at the grassroots level of powers and autonomy, which he termed as “a threat to Pakistan”
It is pertinent to note that the amended local government bill was passed by the Sindh Assembly on November 26, 2021 despite strong opposition and boycott of the proceedings by the opposition parties, mainly Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pak Sarzameen Party and Grand Democratic Alliance who objected to what termed the curtailment of powers of elected representatives under the new legislation, and have been staging protests and clamouring to repeal the amendments.
PSP chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal had also announced to launch a decisive movement from January 2 against the LG law.
Umar, while addressing a presser in Karachi today, stated that “the devolution of power to the local level is quite necessary for democracy and governance in the country.”
He further stated that Pakistan would continue to be embroiled in “tension” until provinces, Sindh in particular, fairly devolved powers at the grassroots level.
Umar said the government would keep raising its voice in the parliament and continue the legal battles until the “unreasonable” amendments to the local government law in Sindh were revoked.
The minister went on to state that each province comprises of people from different ethnic backgrounds and “for that reason, the entire country should not be run from Islamabad, as we need to empower the lower segments”.
It is pertinent to note that the local government bill has already become a law, despite the fact that the governor had refused to sign off on it.
As per constitutional requirement, the bill was sent to Sindh Governor Imran Ismail for his assent. However, he returned the legislation, with around 10 objections to the assembly for reconsideration.
Earlier, on December 11, PTI had addressed some of the objections raised by the governor, including removing a clause that allowed election of mayor/chairman through secret ballot and reviving a condition that only an elected LG representative can contest the mayoral election when it got passed the LG bill again.
However, the provincial government had refused to return the functions of health and education to municipalities, which in the words of the opposition had been ‘snatched’ from the local governments and passed the bill, before sending it to the governor again for his assent. This time, however, the bill became a law even without the governor’s nod.
It merits mention that according to Article 116 of the Constitution: “When the Governor has returned a Bill to the Provincial Assembly, it shall be reconsidered by the provincial assembly and, if it is again passed, with or without amendment, by the provincial assembly, by the votes of majority of the members of the provincial assembly present and voting, it shall be again presented to the Governor and the Governor shall give his assent within 10 days, failing which such assent shall be deemed to have been given.
“When the Governor has assented or is deemed to have assented to a bill, it shall become law and be called an act of provincial assembly.”
With or without the governor’s assent, “After 12 days it [LG bill] will stand implemented automatically across the province,” a spokesperson for Governor House had said.
The law abolishes district municipal corporations in urban parts of the province, replacing them with town municipal corporations.
As per the details, the amended bill suggests that a metropolitan corporation would consist of over 5million people; municipal corporation between 300,000 to 5m; town in metropolitan corporation 500,000 to 750,000, town in municipal corporation 125,000 to 350,000; municipal committee 50,000 to 300,000; union committee in municipal corporation 45,000 to 75,000; union council 10,000 to 25,000 people.
It is pertinent to note that the amended bill has deprived the local government institutions of functions like education and health as they would deal only with municipal functions such as garbage disposal, water and sanitation.
In response to a question, he said that the mini-budget tabled in the National Assembly was made as per the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after intense negotiations between the government and the Fund.
He further mentioned that the Finance Ministry convinced the IMF to reduce the revenue target from over Rs700b to about Rs350b. Umar claimed that out of over Rs350b at least Rs262bn taxes will be refunded/adjustable whereas the public will be burdened with only Rs2b in taxes, which is not “much”.
Adding to that, Umar also said that the federal government will initiate legal action against the Sindh government over the “theft” of wheat worth Rs20 billion in the province.
He went on to reveal that the price of a 20kg bag of wheat flour in Sindh was Rs300-350 more than Punjab even though the former is the largest producer of wheat in Pakistan.
According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Rs20bn wheat was stolen in Sindh whereas the provincial government had said that the commodity was spoiled by rats, Umar added.
He said that the issue will be raised in the National Assembly as well as the Sindh Assembly, as an explanation was necessary over the issue.
Speaking about the coronavirus vaccination campaign, Umar said that the government managed to meet its vaccine target to vaccinate 70 million people in Pakistan by the end of this year.
The minister said that Rs250 billion were allocated by the federal government for a countrywide vaccination campaign that didn’t discriminate against anyone during the inoculation drive. He also urged the people to take precautions amid a rise in Omicron cases across Pakistan.
