Sindh govt vows to transfer powers, support local leadership

Karachi

Despite the conspicuous absence of its chief minister and other senior provincial authorities, the Sindh government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) expressed the resolve to transfer due powers to and fully side with the newly inducted leadership of municipal agencies across the province.  

While Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah remained in Islamabad on Tuesday for a second consecutive day for meetings with federal ministers, no other responsible authority from the Sindh government attended the oath-taking ceremony.

The CM was, however, dearly remembered when leaders of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) criticised the provincial government for not allowing the newly sworn in mayor to visit Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum to pay his respects.    

Nonetheless, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro greeted the new officials of municipal agencies.

As per an official statement Shoro stated that the Sindh government and its local government department would provide full assistance to the municipality of the entire province.

He said the sacrifices rendered by leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for restoration of democracy were unparalleled when compared to services of any other political party of the country.

He said the Sindh government believed in immediate transfer of all lawful and prescribed authorities and powers promised under the Sindh Local Government Law, 2013.

Appreciating his own government, Shoro said Sindh was the first province in the country to have adopted, through the assembly, a local government law ensuring timely municipal elections.

The minister, however, blamed the opposition parties for the undue delay in elections; for he opined that the opposing political parties unduly resorted to litigation for frivolous causes and to gain political advantage.

“As the constitutional promise of transferring power to the grassroots completes today, the province of Sindh has gained much salience and importance with respect to its history of democratic struggle,” Shoro observed.

The statement further quoted him expressing hope that the newly inducted municipal agencies’ officials would strive to resolve genuine issues of the masses irrespective of constituencies and districts.

Bilawal congratulates

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also felicitated the elected mayors and chairmen who took oath of their respective offices. “Today begins a new era in the history of local governance. Those taking over the reins of local government have chosen the great responsibility of serving citizens of their respective areas.”

“Your performance should be tangible rather than just verbal,” the PPP chairman stated in his statement.

Bilawal observed that the province of Sindh had achieved a local government system through party-based elections for the first time in decades.

Besides civic amenities, the new local bodies were also to act as nurseries of grassroots democracy in order to further the process by getting the public involved, the PPP chairman stated. He eulogised the committed, hardworking and untiring efforts of former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and MNA as well as PPP women wing president Faryal Talpur, for the party’s massive success in the local government elections. He added that he was happy to see 18 candidates from minority communities being elected as chairmen, vice chairmen on PPP’s tickets;  “This adds another feather in the cap of local government and democracy.”