27 January 2005	Thursday	16 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 26: The National Reconstruction Bureau, which sired the new local government system and monitors its progress, has disfavoured the removal of the nazims of the four bifurcated districts of the province , a Sindh High Court division bench was informed on Wednesday.

Presenting copies of a newspaper interview given by NRB chief Chaudhry Daniyal Aziz, Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, senior counsel for the petitioners in the Nazims' case, said according to him, the provincial government was not competent to remove or replace the nazims.

The counsel pointed out that the NRB was one of the official respondents in the petition. He wondered whether the deputy attorney-general representing the federal government would support or contest the NRB view.

Resuming his arguments earlier, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that the position taken by the petitioners was that while the government was entitled to carve out new districts from old ones, no consequences would flow from the decision insofar as the district governments involved were concerned.

No doubt, Section 3 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) gave it an overriding effect but Section 7 of the same ordinance declared that the districts notified by the government under the Sindh Land Revenue Act shall be deemed to have been created under the SLGO for purposes of local government. The provision was equally overriding, he argued.

Analyzing various provisions of the SLGO, the AG said the law barred division or sub-division of talukas pending fresh local government polls. There was, however, no such bar in respect of bifurcation or re-demarcation of districts.

Asked by the bench why the district nazims were not allowed to function as caretakers during the interim period, the law officer said officiating nazims were disqualified from contesting elections.

The government did not want to render them ineligible and the decision left the relieved nazims free to seek a fresh mandate from the new electoral units created by the bifurcation of the four districts.

Naib Nazims, the AG stated, could officiate as nazims but only in the event of a temporary vacancy. There was no vacancy in the instant case. The offices of the nazims of the defunct districts just ceased to exist following bifurcation and the incumbents were relieved to make way for new polls in a fair and impartial manner.

As for the interim charge given to the district coordination officers, the AG maintained that the DCOs were no stranger to the district government. In fact, they were a crucial component of it, entrusted as they were with general supervision and coordination of its various departments or groups of offices.

The DCO was the principal accounting officer even in the presence of nazim and naib nazim and it was he who was responsible the public accounts committee. The AG will continue his arguments when the bench, which consists of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Zia Pervez, resumes proceedings on Thursday.