KARACHI, March 11: Despite a lapse of over two-and-a-half years, since the inception of local governments, the Sindh government has, so far, failed to devolve around a dozen of its departments to the city government.
Besides, a number of other departments/offices, which have already been devolved to the city government, are openly defying legal requirements by not adopting the discipline and procedure as laid in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001.
The provincial government departments, which were supposed to be devolved to the CDGK after the promulgation of the SLGO-2001, include Sindh Kachhi Abdis Authority, Population Welfare department, Social Welfare department, Labour department, Sindh Cooperatives and Fisheries, Agriculture and Child and Women Health departments.
The other organizations/offices which have been devolved, though not effectively, to the CDGK include Excise and Taxation department, Karachi Building Control Authority and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.
As far as the devolution of education and health departments' to the CDGK is concerned, all the government schools, colleges and Sindh government hospitals and dispensaries have already been devolved to the CDGK and are being managed by it, yet the transfers, postings and appointments of teachers in the CDGK's schools and colleges and that of doctors in the hospitals and dispensaries, are being made by the provincial education and health departments.
Taking a strong exception to such anomalies in the functioning of the devolved departments, City Nazim Niamatullah Khan has written a letter to Chief Secretary Dr Mutawakkil Kazi, requesting him to direct all those offices/departments which have been decentralized under the SLGO's Section 14, to immediately adopt the discipline of the CDGK.
He has also requested the chief secretary to instruct the officials of the Sindh government not to entertain the cases pertaining to the departments/offices devolved to the city government.
Expressing his concern over non-compliance of law regarding decentralisation of the offices/departments, the nazim, in his letter stated: "As per system of the Local Government, the offices/departments under the management of provincial government, shown in Part-A and B of the First Schedule, have been decentralised to the CDGK as per Section 14 of the SLGO-2001."
The nazim's letter said that although the administrative and financial authority for the management of the offices specified in the First Schedule stood decentralized to the CDGK, a number of these offices/departments were defying legal requirement by not adopting the discipline and working procedures of the CDGK as per the law.
These offices/departments of the CDGK were still treating the administrative and financial matters as per the procedure in practice prior to the decentralization, while some of the Sindh government offices were still entertaining such matters, which were now beyond their jurisdiction, it was further pointed out in the letter.
However, in response to the nazim's letter, a section officer of the Sindh government's Services and General Administration department had written a letter to the nazim, requesting him to specify the departments/offices, which were found to be violating SLGO-2001, and also to provide further details, so that the issue could be handled in a an effective manner.
