June 24, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 19, 1429

KARACHI, June 23: The City Council on Monday constituted a seven-member committee to amend the conduct of meetings bylaws 2002, which was approved through Resolution 136 in October 21, 2002.

After the approval of the council, these bylaws may be replaced by the Zila Council City District Government Karachi (Meetings & Conduct of Business Bylaws, 2008).

The committee, comprising four treasury and three opposition members, was tasked with suggesting suitable changes in the pending resolution to be tabled by the treasury in the next session.

The amendment resolution was the main agenda of Monday’s session. Though the new resolution was tabled in the house, Convener Nasreen Jalil deferred the debate till the next meeting on the persistence of leader of the house Asif Siddiqui, who pleaded that because the issue is very important, it should not be discussed hastily and every member should be given sufficient time to speak on it.

Opposition member advocate Saifuddin also pointed out certain ambiguities in the proposed bylaws, saying that “there were also several linguistic mistakes in the draft.”

After a heated debate, the two sides reached a consensus on the constitution of a seven-member committee to propose suitable amendments in the new bylaws.

Earlier, noisy disturbances were witnessed when the house members took up the issues of water, sewerage and electricity. Juman Darwan and Ismail Brohi severally criticised the city government for its “biased attitude” towards the developmental needs of the opposition areas.

They argued that being the representative of the city, the nazim should treat all citizens of Karachi equally and distribute funds on an equal basis.

The opposition members said the house business could not be run smoothly unless the city nazim changed – what they called – his “biased attitude” and equally treated all localities of the city and addressed the grievances of the people judiciously.

Certain remarks of the opposition members had created pandemonium in the house. The convener repeatedly told the members to maintain decorum.

Defending the CDGK, Asif Siddiqui submitted that the water and sewerage problems were handled properly by the city government and these problems had never been taken up by the opposition members seriously.

According to him, the situation had been deteriorating for the past three months after the induction of the new government, which came into being as a result of the 2008 national elections.

He blamed the “administrative inefficiency” of the new government for the “present mess.” Mr Siddiqui said though “we are coalition partners” of the new government, we have the right to criticize any policy of the government “detrimental to the interest of the city as well of the country.”

Water crisis

Treasury member Abdul Jalil also blamed the water crisis on the KESC management, saying that “several localities could not get regular water supply due to frequent power failures.” He admitted that all pumping stations were not provided with generators.

Mr Jalil also called for conducting an inquiry into the KESC’s affairs, asking why a Saudi firm transferred its shares to a Dubai firm.

Criticising government policies, the treasury member maintained that a cut in the Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) and the Single Line Transfer Share (SLTS) had badly affected the flow of cash and it would ultimately harm the development works. He argued that most of the issues were interlinked and could not be separated.

While Mr Jalil was making his submissions, opposition member Abdul Razzak took the floor on a point of order. He blasted the city government on various counts and alleged that it was not correct that generators were provided to all pumping stations.

The emotionally charged opposition leader also attacked the CDGK for its failure to clean the storm-drains and warned that the coming monsoon would play havoc with the lives of the people.

The treasury members repeatedly interrupted Mr Razzak’s speech by thumping desks. A treasury member, Mirza Sajid Ali, loudly recited “Aoozubillah ….”.

The convener had to suspend the proceedings twice for five and 15 minutes, respectively, to bring order to the house.

OZT and SLTS

When the house resumed its proceedings, treasury member Arshad Qureshi blasted the government for imposing a drastic cut in the shares of the Octroi Zila Tax and the Single Line Transfer Share, which would cripple the city government financially and badly affect development works.

Quoting figures, Mr Qureshi said that in the 2007-2008 budget, the SLTS share communicated by the provincial government was Rs10,898.784 million. However, contrary to this, Rs10,179.470 million was received as its share. Thus, there was a shortfall of Rs719.314 million.

In the fiscal year 2008-2009, the SLTS communicated by the provincial government was Rs10,505.189 million. Consequently, there was a short release of Rs393.597 million against the previous year’s share.

In the same way, Arshad Qureshi said the annual share communicated by the provincial government for 2007-2008 fiscal on account of the OZT was Rs3,411.744 million but the OZT share received from the provincial government was 3,114.372 million. Hence, there was a short release of Rs297.372 million during June-July.

But the annual share communicated by the provincial government for 2008-2009 on account of the OZT was Rs2,862.163 million, thus the shortfall of Rs549.581 million from the OZT share in 2007-8 and 2008-9.

In addition, the treasury member claimed that the provincial government had ignored the 20 per cent increase in salary and pension of government employees during the budget speech, besides the 10 per cent annual regular increase and 20 per cent increase in ADP 2008-2009, which would have a further adverse financial impact on the employees.

Taking the floor, Juman Darwan slammed the role of the treasury, saying that “We have been crying against injustices for the last three years,” but it was now raising the issue of cuts in the OZT. He reminded the treasury of their role on the issue of release of union council funds. But their demand had always been ignored.

He said: “We had contacted the Sindh government on this issue, hoping that it would be solved amicably.” He advised the treasury members to adopt a realistic approach.

Mr Juman was supported by Ismail Brohi, Dr Ziauddin, Rafiq Ahmed and Ramzan Awan. While he was making his submissions, opposition member Dilawar Khan shouted: “We want UC fund.” There was utter confusion in the house when the treasury started thumping desks and the convener advised them to stay calm.

Earlier, when the house resumed its session, opposition member Shamim Mumtaz asked members to recite Fateha for Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto.

Later, a number of speakers on both sides of the divide paid homage to the slain leader and lauded her services for the country.

Those who spoke included Asif Siddiqui, Rafiq Ahmed, Ramzan Awan, Ismail Brohi and Ibrahim Mughal.

In her speech, Nasreen Jalil also paid tributes to Benazir Bhutto, saying that her sacrifices would never be forgotten. She also expressed her wish that the reconciliation process initiated by the late leader should have been a symbol of this house.

The council will now meet on June 28 at 4pm.