KARACHI, March 3: The ongoing controversy over the control of the KBCA between the Sindh and city governments is likely to be resolved at a high-level committee's meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday.
The meeting, to be presided over by Chief Secretary Dr Mutawwakkil Kazi, will be attended by Additional Chief Secretary (Local Government), Salim Khan, Finance Secretary Malik Israr Hussain, Law Secretary Syed Ghulam Nabi Shah, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan and District Coordination Officer Mir Hussain Ali.
The city Nazim, annoyed over non-compliance of a Sindh government's notification concerning the KBCA's devolution in to the CDGK and town administrations, through a notification issued on Feb 10, had announced setting up of a parallel organization called "District Municipal Office Building Control", assigning it the same task as that of the KBCA.
Shortly after publication of the notification, the chief secretary intervened into the matter, urging the Nazim to hold the notification in abeyance as the Sindh governor had already formed a committee to look into the matter of the KBCA's devolution.
Acceding to the chief secretary's request, the Nazim has held the Feb 10 notification in abeyance by issuing an order on Feb 11, saying that he had been assured by the competent authority that the matter about the devolution of the KBCA would be finalized in a week's time.
However, the issues concerning the KBCA's devolution could not be finalized till to-date as the high-level committee which was assigned the task of resolving the matter could not meet earlier due to some unavoidable circumstances.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that the controversy regarding the KBCA, however, is likely to be resolved to some extent on Thursday when some concrete decisions concerning the authority's financial and legal aspects would be discussed at the high-level committee's meeting.
The meeting is also likely to invest the KBCA chief executive's powers in the city Nazim as envisaged in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), 2001, which gave birth to the local government system on Aug 14, 2001.
The sources, however, were of the opinion that the bickering between the Sindh and City governments over the KBCA would continue until the Sindh Building Control Ordinance (SBCO), 1979, whereby the KBCA was created, was either repealed or amended by the Sindh Assembly.
"Although the KBCA had become a part of the CDGK under the SLGO-2001, the provincial government has, so far, been unable to repeal the SBCO-'79 which is hindering the complete devolution of the KBCA in to the CDGK and town municipal administrations," they added.
They were, however, optimistic that the powers of chief executive of the KBCA which were currently being enjoyed by the chief controller of buildings would be invested in the city Nazim.
"Isn't it a mockery of the SLGO-2001 under which the new local government system came into being that despite the KBCA's devolution in to the CDGK, the city Nazim has not yet been invested with the chief executive's powers of the authority," a senior official of the CDGK remarked.
Officials of both the CDGK and the KBCA apprehend that in case the meeting fails to resolve the KBCA issue, the tussle for power between the local government department and the city government will continue, having a negative impact on the city's development activities.
