KARACHI, July 3: President of the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal Rehmat Khan Wardag has demanded that the minimum educational standard required for a nazim should be raised so that it could be ensured that only competent and highly qualified people were elected to this office.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, he said that a district nazim should possess a Masters degree and a taluka nazim a Bachelor degree, whereas a UC nazim should at least be a Matriculate.

Mr Wardag argued that nazims were supposed to deal with highly qualified bureaucrats who would have a tight grip over the affairs of district governments. The bureaucracy, he added, would not let the benefits of the local government system trickle down to grassroots level. Welfare of masses could be ensured only when nazims were competent enough to deal with the bureaucracy and manage to establish a close coordination with them.

He pointed out that for an MNA/MPA, the minimum qualification was graduation although they represented around 0.15 and 0.3 million people, respectively, but no such bar was there for a district nazim who would represent some 1.5 million people.

The TI chief said that his party had been demanding provincial autonomy from day one which was inevitable to attain the objective of removing the prevailing sense of deprivation among smaller provinces.

Reiterating the demand, he said that the federation should keep only four portfolios — external affairs, finance, defence and communication — while all other portfolios should be transferred to provinces. This, he said, would also result in a real devolution of powers and would greatly benefit the common man.

Mr Wardag also stressed that provincial governments should ensure peaceful holding of the local bodies polls in a free, fair and transparent manner so that the results could be regarded credible.

Describing the prevailing law and order situation, especially in Karachi, as ‘not so good’, he asked all provincial governments to ensure safety and security of people and protection to their property.

He demand that the local government of a town having a population of more than 2.5 million should be declared as city government. He named Sukkur and Hyderabad in particular, and said there should be separate budgets for such cities as was being done in Punjab.

Mr Wardag opposed the decision under which chief ministers were vested with powers through an ordinance to sack nazims, and demanded repeal of this ordinance. He called for introduction of a law under which removal of a nazim should be made possible only through a no-confidence motion.

He said that MNAs, MPAs and senators should be made members of the district development boards of their respective areas. The broads, he added, should be headed by district nazims and monitoring of the pace of uplift work approved by these boards. —PPI