Ex-deputy mayor becomes first politician to respond to Sindh govt’s talk offer on LG law

Tariq Hassan, former Karachi naib nazim (a post equivalent to deputy mayor), has become the first political figure in Sindh to have come forward and formally responded to the recent offer of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh government for holding talks with the concerned stakeholders on the newly passed provincial local government amendment bill, which has become highly controversial since its recent passage from the Sindh Assembly.

Hassan met on Sunday Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and formally submitted a set of suggestions to improve the provincial local government system on behalf of his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, of which he is the Sindh chapter president.

Shah appreciated the gesture of the former Karachi naib nazim, saying that Hassan came forward to submit his suggestions for improvements in the municipal governance in Sindh. The minister hoped that other opposition political parties would follow suit and opt for negotiations for incorporating their recommendations into the provincial local government law.

He said that negotiations was the best democratic method to resolve the problems of the people. Shah maintained that in pursuance of the democratic principles and traditions, the PPP had always believed in consultations to resolve political issues. He said that the same spirit had been shown by the PPP in 1973 when all the concerned stakeholders were consulted to draft Pakistan’s constitution.

The local government minister stated that it was the PPP’s desire to take along all the political stakeholders while furthering the process of improving the law governing the municipal system of the province.

He said that even though the PPP was in a majority in the Sindh Assembly and had the power to pass laws, it would make the best possible effort to forge consensus on the issue of amendments to the local government law of the province.

The PPP would surely incorporate the workable and feasible points in the recommendations given by the former city naib nazim, Shah said. Hassan said he had authored the suggestions to improve the municipal governance in Sindh in view of his experience as the naib nazim of Karachi. Hassan served as the Karachi naib nazim when Niamatullah Khan was the nazim of the city.