PPP, MQM-P to adopt amended LG law beneficial to rural, urban areas

The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan have expressed their resolve to work together for adopting a local government law which would be beneficial to the residents of both the urban and rural parts of the province.

Leaders of the two political parties were addressing a joint press conference at the Bahadurabad head office of the MQM-P. Earlier, the parties held talks at the same venue. The PPP was represented in the negotiations by Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Husain Shah and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, while the MQM-P was represented by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Amir Khan, Waseem Akhtar, Kanwar Naveed Jameel, Javed Hanif, and Khawaja Izharul Hassan.

Talking to media persons, the leaders said both the PPP and MQM had the resolve to work together for the sake of Sindh and the rest of the country. They said both the parties had agreed to continue with their talks to further amend the provincial local government law.

They said the two parties had held talks in a cordial and pleasant manner and discussed in detail issues related to the local government law and the prevailing water crisis in Sindh, particularly in Karachi.

The MQM-P leaders that the coordination committee of the party would make the final decision whether to join the Sindh government after the accord signed by them with the PPP before the change of government was implemented, while amendments were also incorporated into the local government law.

Kanwar Naveed Jameel said the meeting had been held as part of the ongoing negotiations after the MQM-P and the PPP had signed the accord. He said that such meetings had been held in the past also and would continue to be held in the future as well.

He said the latest meeting had considered the suggestions earlier given by the MQM-P to improve the local government law. He said that another round of talks had to be held between the two parties before finalising the amendments to the law for adoption by the Sindh Assembly.

Jameel said both the parties had the unanimous view that such legislation should be adopted which proved beneficial not just to the residents of Karachi and Hyderabad but also to the rural parts of the province.

Answering a question, he said that before making any decision to join the Sindh government as a coalition partner, their preference was that the accord between MQM and PPP was implemented while amendments were also made to the local government law.

The local government minister said the Sindh government would amend the law in view of the directives of the Supreme Court and suggestions given by the MQM –P and other political parties.

He said the Sindh government had been holding talks with political parties to improve the local government law. He said the negotiations also took into consideration delimitations of constituencies for the local government elections, development projects in urban parts of Sindh, setting up a university in Hyderabad, and a women's university in the province.

He said the meeting also took into consideration water issues of Karachi and initiatives launched to overcome this problem, including the K-IV project, saying the chief minister himself had chaired meetings to ensure that there should be equitable water distribution in the province.

The local government minister reiterated the resolve of his government to overcome the prevailing water crisis in Karachi by introducing a fair mechanism to ensure an uninterrupted water supply for the residents of the city.

He said PPP leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari had shown big-heartedness for the development of both urban and rural areas of the province in the larger interest of Sindh. To a question, he said that they honoured the people who had laid down their lives on the tragic day of May 12, 2007 in Karachi, and the MQM also shared the same grief and sorrow.