KARACHI, Aug 18: After a very insipid session three weeks ago of the provincial assembly convened to elect new president, which the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party boycotted, the Sindh Assembly is expected to witness an eventful day today when the PPP submits a bill to make into law a modified version of 1979 local government law.

Almost all political parties with representation in the assembly but the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have supported the draft LG law.

The new bill titled Sindh Local Government Act 2013 has been drafted after incorporating ‘many reasonable proposals’ extended by the opposition parties and is ready to be moved in the assembly.

“Almost every political party except the MQM has supported our new bill, which we are contemplating to table in Monday’s session,” said Dr Sikander Mandhro while speaking to Dawn. “We presented the draft to all the parties to seek their proposals and make it a unanimous document to put an end once and for all to prolonged bickering over previous systems by one or the other party,” the law minister said.

He said the government received several proposals from different political parties and incorporated certain suggestions in the final draft. “Not all, but certain useful proposals we received from other political parties have been incorporated in the final draft, which also includes some suggestions given by the MQM,” he said.

The ruling party’s lawmakers gathered at the Chief Minister’s House on Sunday evening to discuss the party’s strategy for the session. They discussed the ramifications and political impact the discussion on the LG bill would create in and outside the house.

A PPP lawmaker hinted at the passage of the draft bill in the day’s business but added the party was satisfied with the fact that most political parties were supporting the draft bill yet the leaders’ heart went out to the MQM with which they had cordial relations for many years. “We will try to take MQM in the loop and we will try our level best,” the lawmaker said.

The MQM lawmakers too discussed their strategy at the party headquarters, 90, in Azizabad. But the final strategy would be made just before the assembly’s session on Monday.

The party, however, had already expressed its discontent over the draft. Faisal Sabzwari, opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, rebuffed the draft in his recent statement after a second round of talks between the PPP and the MQM concluded. He said the local government system should be in accordance with the constitution, which called for devolution of financial and political powers to local institutions. However, Mr Sabzwari said he expected the PPP would mull the MQM’s suggestions before the draft was tabled in the assembly.

A leader of another opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), said the party had flipped through the draft and was largely in support of the government effort. But, he said, the party was opposed to the party-based elections for local bodies. “The people of Sindh deserve better than being batted back and forth between SLGO 1979 and SPLGO 2012,” he remarked.

He said the PML-F, in response to the SPLGO 2012 and the ‘disrespectful manner’ in which it was presented, had staged a day of mourning in November 2012, along with Sindhi nationalist parties. “We believe that recent changes to the 1979 LG law can be made relevant to today’s needs of Sindh with minor adjustments as discussed in this document,” he said. However, he added, the rest of the draft was ‘very convincing’.

PML-N’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Irfanullah Marwat, said the party-based local bodies’ elections would politicise the local governments and affect the work of councillors and mayors for their constituents. “We fear it will encourage the elected representatives in the local governments to deliver services only to their voters, thus cause the very idea of the local government system to collapse, which is to serve everyone without prejudice,” he said.“The document is overall convincing and workable,” said Mr Marwat.