19 September 2004	Sunday	03 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Sept 18: Speakers at a seminar on Saturday said that the local government system was working as effectively as it could in the given circumstances, however, there was still room for further improvement.

The seminar on "District Government System: The first three years - an assessment" was organized by a non-governmental organization Shehri - Citizens for a Better Environment.

The speakers pointed out that various organizations such as Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Karachi Building Control Authority and Police had not yet been given under the full control of district government, though it had been mentioned as such in the relevant policy.

DCO Mir Hassan Ali suggested that a review mechanism to evaluate the devolution plan / local government should be set up so that if some shortcomings came forward these could be overcome and the system could be improved. He stressed on better coordination among local, provincial and federal governments.

In the present system, he said, a DCO's ACR was written by the nazim and he could be transferred on the request of nazim. This should be reviewed, he said adding that it can make DCOs vulnerable to all kinds of nazim's orders.

Shehri chief Roland de Souza said that approximately 50 per cent of the city's population lived in kutchi abadis. City's population was increasing by half a million people every year but still majority of the decisions, regarding the rules and laws governing the city, were taken on the basis of compassion and not on legal basis.

He said that some of the decisions being taken nowadays which would affect the future of Karachi were regularization of the illegal buildings; strip commercialization of the 19 major roads allowing up to 10 times the originally planned amount of construction; regularization of illegally allotted plots conversions and exchanges of land; approval of building plans in great excess of what was permitted by zoning regulations and land grant conditions, etc. He said that all these steps would increase the burden on the already over-burdened infrastructure of basic civic amenities.

City government's representative Rehana Afroze said that efforts were being made to improve the standard of education and medical services.

She said almost 30 per cent of budget had been kept for education. In the past two years, a total of 22 new colleges had been opened, she said adding that ten more colleges would be opened this year. She said that owing to the ban on recruitments, all the teaching staff in these colleges was working on voluntary basis.

Deliberating on city government's efforts in education sector, she said that Rs80 million had been earmarked for scholarships for girl students; all quotas had been abolished despite various pressures; Rs200 million had been spent on school repairs; a number of students of government schools had been sent on international tours for education purpose; and a comprehensive women's library complex was being constructed.

About health and environment, she said that the city government introduced environment-friendly buses; school health services had been improved; and model parks were being developed.

With the available infrastructure, she said, the city government was managing to collect 65 per cent of the city's garbage.

She said that hiring and firing of sweepers was not in the hands of city government, which created problems as it could not take action against people who did not work properly.

Siddique Rathore, however, said that the nazim had been made very strong and he was not answerable to the council. He said that the nazim came to the council only once at the time of budget.

He said that officials did not respond to the queries sent by the council. He demanded that the council should be made more powerful. He suggested that only one - either the union council or the town council - be kept.

NED University's Prof Mohammad Nauman, who has worked with the PILER in connection with the legal government, said that one of the shortcomings in the devolution plan was that the finances were controlled by the federal government. He regretted that the district ombudsman had not yet been appointed, the councils were weak, and the information was not even provided to the councillors. He said that one of the reasons for powerful nazims could be that under the original plans the nazims were to be elected directly, so they were given more powers. But, the election process was later reviewed.

Among others, Qadeer Baig of the NGO Resource Centre and Kiran Bano of the NED also spoke at the seminar.