HYDERABAD, Oct 31: The Pakistan Peoples Party is seriously considering making Qasimabad a separate district after carving it out of Hyderabad and the district administration is already working on the modalities of the proposal without taking into confidence other stakeholders, it emerged on Thursday.

The idea floated by the Qasimabad-based provincial minister of the PPP, Jam Khan Shoro, envisages the new district with a municipal committee, five union councils of existing Qasimabad taluka, 11 UCs of Hyderabad (rural) taluka, parts of Hussainabad and UC Khathar of Latifabad rural taluka.

Constituencies of PS-49 (MQM), PS-50 Tandojam (PPP), PS-53 Tando Mohammad Khan (PPP) may also undergo some changes if the proposal gets through in its present shape, according to official sources.

“I’ve given this proposal to the party high command which favours the idea in principle. Everything will get clearer in a few days,” said Mr Shoro who defeated Qaumi Awami Tehreek head Ayaz Latif Palijo to win PS-47 (Qasimabad).

“My uncle, former taluka nazim of Qasimabad the late Noor Mohammad Shoro, had first floated the idea and proposed it to Arbab Ghulam Rahim but he could not materialise it for a variety of reasons,” he said.

Mr Palijo strongly reacted to the new district idea while speaking to a gathering of his party’s candidates for the upcoming LG polls and said: “The PPP is following Musharraf’s policy of creating small constituencies for its feudal lords in the name of new delimitation. We’ll oppose Qasimabad district.”

He termed it mischief aimed at expelling Sindhis from Hyderabad and asked when Latifabad and City were part of larger Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) then why Qasimabad was being divided in the name of a new district.

Interestingly, the district administration officials are working on the idea after Mr Shoro pushed it without consulting other leaders of the PPP’s Hyderabad chapter. “Yes, the proposal is being worked out,” confirmed a senior administration official.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Nawaz Sohu is apparently avoiding making any comment on it. He did not attend calls repeatedly made to his mobile phone and landline numbers.

Sindh government has recently raised status of Qasimabad taluka municipal administration to municipal committee which was part of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation under Musharraf’s local government law.

”After the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, everything is being decided by the party’s big guns who hold sway over all matters nowadays and don’t value opinions of other office-bearers,” complained a local PPP leader.

He said that significant changes were being made without taking into consideration different factors. The decision was likely to evoke a strong reaction from nationalists who had vehemently opposed division of Hyderabad into four districts by the Arbab government, he said.

“They are living in a fool’s paradise. I believe it will cause more uproar and will have more serious implications than the LG law with a dual system introduced by the PPP towards the end of its tenure,” said Dr Qadir Magsi, chairman of the Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party.

Mr Shoro dismissed the nationalists’ reaction and said they (nationalists) called for more districts in Karachi but opposed the same for Hyderabad. “Isn’t it double standards?” he remarked.

But Dr Magsi cautioned the proposal would tear apart ethnic harmony of the area. “Local feudal lords of the PPP are following Musharraf’s policy of creating their fiefdoms and suppressing the middle-class.

“If urban and rural populations remain part of one local government institution they will be dependent on each other and it will help assimilation,” he said.

Such nonsensical attempts might further deepen divisions and in effect hand over everything to an ethnic party, he said.

PPP MNA from Qasimabad, Ameer Ali Shah Jamote, throws his weight behind the new district. “I’ve been pursuing the proposal since 2005. I asked the then PPP-led government to either restore status of old Hyderabad or make Qasimabad a new district. But the people of new districts refused to be part of the old district again,” he said and added that all stakeholders would be taken on board over Qasimabad district.

The new delimitation plan of Hyderabad district has been kept as a closely guarded secret by the deputy commissioner Mr Sohu. Although Nov 1 is the last date for filing objections against delimitation the DC office had not displayed lists of new wards and delimitation till 3.30pm on Thursday outside his office in Shahbaz Building.

According to official sources, Hyderabad city taluka will have 50 UCs and Latifabad 44 while Tando Qaiser and Husri have been made town committees and Hyderabad (rural) taluka will have 22 UCs.

Qasimabad municipal committee will have five UCs with a population of around 9,000 to 10,000 that used to be 20,000 to 25,000. Their size has been squeezed to create more UCs.

“Even areas in my constituency have undergone changes under the new delimitation without consulting me,” said a PPP leader from Qasimabad.

He supported the proposal of new district but said consultation should have been made on it before putting it into practice. No brainstorming had been done on the idea within the party, he added.

Surprisingly, the PPP which had joined its voice to protests by nationalists and civil society over division of Hyderabad district into four districts in April 2005 and failed to reverse the decision after it came to power in 2008, is itself now bent on creating more districts.