Sindh govt again offers protesting opposition talks on LG law

KARACHI: Reiterating its stance that up to 80 percent of suggestions of the opposition concerning the local government law have already been incorporated, the Sindh government once again extended an olive branch to the protesting opposition parties for holding negotiations on the system of municipal governance.

The talks offer was given by the provincial Local Government Minister, Syed Nasir Hussain, through a handout issued on Sunday, when the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) took out a big rally on the main thoroughfare of the city, Sharea Faisal, against the controversial provincial Local Government (Amendment) Act-2021 recently passed by the Sindh Assembly.

A day earlier, three main opposition parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan, and Grand Democratic Alliance, collectively staged a protest demonstration at Fawara Chowk in Saddar, Karachi against the controversial local government amendment bill.

The local government minister, while offering negotiation to the opposition on the controversial local government law, also questioned whether or not the type of municipal governance system, desired by the opposition parties in Sindh, was present in Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

Expressing surprise, he said no political entity had staged any protest or sit-in in the other two provinces on the issue of the local government system, adding that the opposition’s agitation was only meant for the political point scorning.

He said the opposition’s protest in Sindh was meant to divert the public’s attention away from the issues of record corruption, unemployment, and unprecedented hike in the prices of essential commodities. The opposition parties were not raising the real issues of the masses, he added.

The provincial minister said the leaders of the protesting opposition parties from across the province gathered in Karachi the previous day but even then could not pull a sizable crowd on the roads of Karachi. He said the opposition’s announcement to shut the province as part of their agitation drive carried no seriousness, as the plan had nothing to do with the sufferings of the common man.