KARACHI, Nov 8: Unlike what happened during the hearing on delimitation of Karachi Central district in the beginning of the week, the main political parties sank their differences on Friday over a similar controversy involving two lists prepared by the administration showing different numbers for union committees of Karachi East.

The hearings on the objections to fresh delimitation were heard by the tribunal presided over by commissioner of Karachi Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui while deputy commissioners, local government department and census officials were there to give their input on the objections placed by various political parties and citizens.

As the city administration has just a day left to send its final proposals on delimitation, Mr Siddiqui had to stay in his office to conduct the hearings on the two very important districts — West and East — despite the prime minister’s presence in the city.

A total of 753 objections — 385 in West and 368 in East — were filed by cadres of different political parties and citizens questioning over the size, population, location cause behind the carving out of union committees in the two districts.

The hearing on Karachi East began with yet another controversy when the tribunal was asked as to which of the two lists showing different number of union committees should be made the baseline to move forward.

The authorities had lately notified 52 UCs for the district, which in a previous list, notified on Oct 25, were shown as 67.

It was the first time for the local leadership of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to give a rare appearance at the tribunal’s hearings. The other parties who had been attending the proceedings from the beginning included the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Jamaat-i-Islami.

Despite a significant Pakhtun population in the two districts, the Awami National Party, which claim to represent them in the area, never showed up in the hearings since it began.

MQM representatives asserted that a list of 67 constituencies for Karachi East was used — the proposition which, after a little shilly-shallying, other parties, including the PPP, accepted because the district is the city’s largest district and has the largest share in the previous metropolitan corporation council.

It was a rare sight for all as the very parties had deferred the hearing on Karachi Central for Saturday on a similar issue when two official lists showed 61 and 48 union committees for the district.

Commissioner Siddiqui appreciated the wisdom and harmony shown by all the political parties and asked them to keep up with the same spirit so that the exercise could be concluded on Saturday without hiccups.

During the proceedings, the objectors raised questions on various grounds: some also challenged the bifurcation and trifurcation of a previous KP (Karachi Panchayat, as a city council constituency was called previously).

The applicants from East district submitted some basic changes in the constituencies on the basis of increase in population, shifting of infrastructure and differences among various communities.

Previously, during the hearing on some 385 objections filed on different grounds, most appellants wanted more UCs for expanding populations and areas. However, all the political parties tried their level best to maximise their political advantage by getting greater share of the pie.

Interestingly, a PPP leader and formerly provincial minister, Lal Bakhsh Bhutto, questioned in writing about changing of the status of Manghopir and some other neighbourhoods from Karachi rural to urban area and demanded for reversal of the decision.

The deputy commissioner of Karachi West responded to this and other questions asked in the letter of the PPP leader presented before the tribunal. All the participants, including the one holding Mr Bhutto’s letter, agreed upon the response of the deputy commissioner.

A participant also advised Mr Bhutto that it should be encouraged that these areas were mingled with the rest of urban localities.

An applicant protested against the inclusion of Karachi’s islands — Baba, Bhit and Salehabad etc — in Muwachh Goth UC and demanded to restore their previous status as an independent union committee for their unique location. The chair, officials and other participants agreed on it.

A participant tossed a question about the veracity of delimitation of Karachi East when another district, Korangi, had already been carved out from it. The chair said the delimitations had been made on a previous mandate and government guidelines thus warranted no question of validity.

He said officials would slice and dice Korangi delimitation data in light of fresh instructions.

The five districts of the city, excluding the newly-notified Korangi district, have proposed a total of 216 union committees, which will represent in the future city council.

The council’s total strength — estimated on the proposed delimitations — would be at least 286 with the inclusion of mandatory women and labourers/peasants seats.

The district administrations had gone for delimitations in the light of the provincial government’s guidelines, which barred them from using the pre-Musharraf local government system as the baseline by employing 1998 census figures and 2011 electoral rolls as key parameters.

Among the guidelines, the authorities had been asked to ensure that by carving out a new union committee they should not incise a census block and no such constituency overlapped between two subdivisions. Besides, a union committee, which forms a college for the city council of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, should represent a population between 40,000 to 50,000. For, like the rest of the country, the city did not see a census since 1998, the respective district administrations relied on estimated figures by employing a formula of an increase of 1.8 per cent a year, which gave them an aggregate increase of around 30-40 per cent in the city’s population in the last 15 years.