November 24, 2008	Monday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 23: The Sindh Assembly’s winter session is beginning here on Monday at 10am at the assembly building. The session, which will be presided over by Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, has been summoned by Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad.

Interestingly, apart from routine business planned for the session, no changes to the local government system are listed as part of the session’s legislative business.

The PPP parliamentary party, which met at the Chief Minister’s House on Sunday night, discussed the house business fixed for Monday and formulated its strategy while the MQM’s parliamentary party will meet at 9am on Monday in its chamber of the assembly building before proceeding to the assembly hall.

The joint opposition in the Sindh assembly, led by Jam Madad Ali, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (F) parliamentary party, will also meet in its chamber on Monday morning before the proceedings of the session.

The order of the day issued for Monday’s session includes question hour on the Auqaf and food departments, announcement of assent given by the governor to four bills – the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana Bill; the Sindh Goth Abad (Amendment) Bill 2008; the Gorakh Hills Development Authority Bill, 2008, and the Price Control of Essential Commodities Bill, 2008.

The other items on the order of the day are nomination of a member on the Pakistan Nursing Council and on the board of governors of the Sindh Coal Authority, besides election of the standing committees and other committees as laid down in the rules.

Contrary to the expectations, the business in the agenda does not include the local government amendment bill because the main coalition partners in the government – the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – despite holding a couple of meetings, have so far failed to sort out their differences and reach consensus to make amendments to the LGO 2001.

A meeting in this connection was recently held in London between MQM chief Altaf Hussain and PPP parliamentary party leader and Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, along with Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza. In the meeting, besides ‘Talibanisation’, other issues such as the LG system reportedly came under discussion, but the meeting failed to reach consensus on any issue.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah is on record of having said that although three other provincial governments – Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan – had rejected the system and wanted to revive the commissionerate system, the PPP government did not want to scrap the LG system, instead favouring its continuation with certain amendments to make it workable.

The party would like to take all coalition partners on board before taking any decision and efforts were being made to reach a consensus to carry out necessary amendments to the bill.

When the MQM’s deputy parliamentary party leader Faisal Sabzwari was asked if his party had reached consensus regarding amendments to the LG system, he told Dawn that they had had initial discussions to bring a resolution in the session for approaching the federal government to allow the province to make necessary amendments in the police order.

However, it was not in his knowledge if any bill pertaining to the local government system would be moved in the current session, he said, adding that the MQM had presented counter-proposals in response to the PPP’s suggestions. “In our proposals, it was suggested that the district coordination officers should be equipped with the powers of magistracy because the reintroduction of the commissionerate system will create further complications in the smooth working of the LG system.

“If there are some lacunae in the devolution system, we are open to evaluate and re-evaluate it. In this connection, we are also studying the proposals received from the National Reconstruction Bureau”, he added.

According to Dr Asim Hussain, chief of the NRB, the present LG System was protected in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution till April 2009. Therefore, no change was possible in the system without amending the Constitution.

In this regard, a meeting was also presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad last week in which the local government system was reviewed and all the four provincial governments were asked to send in their recommendations.

Soon after the meeting, a PPP delegation led by Pir Mazharul Haq was sent to London to make the MQM leadership agree to the amendments, but despite what was termed a “fruitful” meeting by the PPP leadership, the differences over the LG system could not be sorted out.