Sindh govt ready to negotiate on local govt bill, says Ghani

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani has said the Sindh government may consider the opposition’s demand for restore the method of ‘show of hands’ to elect the Karachi mayor instead of using secret ballots for the purpose.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the information minister said it would not be a big deal for the provincial government to switch back to the system of open election for the mayor if the opposition desired so.

He said the Sindh government was still ready to negotiate with the opposition on the newly passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill-2021.

Ghani maintained that the Opposition lawmakers had walked out of the session of the Sindh Assembly when the House was ready to consider their amendments to the local government amendment bill.

He advised the opposition to go through the draft of the newly passed bill so to know that the new law had not taken back municipal powers from anyone but furthered the process of devolution of powers.

The information minister was of the view that opposition political parties had been doing politics on the newly passed local government bill just to express their animosity against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He explained that the task of waste disposal was still the responsibility of local government agencies after the passage of the new amendment bill as it was in the previous system, as after the passage of the new bill, no municipal agency was bound to contract the services of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board for the purpose.

Ghani said the PPP would not let the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) or any other political entity related to the MQM to do politics in Karachi on the basis of ethnicity. The people of Karachi had paid a heavy price of ethnic politics practiced in the past, he added.

He said that while the MQM-P compromised on the census issue of Karachi, the PPP remained steadfast for the cause. He advised the MQM-P leadership to carry out self-accountability in view of their party’s dismal performance in the recent NA-239 by-poll and cantonment elections.