KARACHI: Ahead of much-awaited mayoral elections, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, with the support of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, managed to change the procedure of indirect local government elections from ‘secret ballot’ to ‘show of hands’ by amending the Sindh local government law on Tuesday.

While lawmakers belonging to other opposition parties — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and PML-N — vehemently opposed the tabling of a government bill on a private members’ day, the bill to amend the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 was passed with a voice vote.

In the bill, the words “secret ballot” have been replaced with “show of hands “ for the elections of mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman of districts and district municipal corporations.

After the house took up private members’ resolutions, Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Khuhro, with the permission of the chair, stood up and presented an amendment bill in the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 through a supplementary order of the day. His action was severely opposed by the opposition lawmakers who drew the attention of the chair that Tuesday was the private members’ day and only private members’ bills on the agenda could be taken for consideration.

Leader of the Opposition Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan opposed the tabling of the government bill and told Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani that if a head count was done the ruling party would be found to be in minority in the assembly.

Mr Khuhro said that the local government institutions were going to be completed soon and the government did not want to create any obstacle in their way. The passage of the bill on Tuesday was necessary since Jan 20-21 were the dates to file nomination papers for the election of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice chairmen.

He said that the PPP was being accused of arm-twisting to muster support for its candidates in the elections of mayor, deputy mayor and chairman and vice chairman. “In order to make the process more transparent we want to substitute ‘secret ballot’ for ‘show of hands’ so that no one could accuse anyone,” he added.

Speaker Durrani, who called the house in order at 11.05am, asked the opposition to cooperate with the government on the issue but opposition continued its protest and chanted “No, No and go corruption go” slogans, while the bill was adopted with a voice vote.

After the passage of the bill at 4.10pm, the house was adjourned till Jan 22.

Later, talking to reporters, the opposition leader Khwaja Izhar said: “We will challenge this unconstitutional, undemocratic and illegal adoption of the bill in court as well as in the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

If needed, he said, the opposition would launch protests.

He also criticised the PTI for siding with the PPP.

Khwaja Izhar said that it appeared that the PPP had no confidence in its own elected LG members.

He termed the bill continuation of the oppressive policies of the PPP and said that the PPP would punish those who would raise their hands against the PPP directives.

He said it appeared that the ruling party was pursuing a policy of confrontation so that they could be sent home.

The parliamentary party leader of the PML-F, Nandkumar, said that the amendment bill was carried in haste despite announcement of the election schedule.

Five resolutions adopted unanimously

Besides the adoption of the local government amendment bill, the Sindh Assembly on its private members day adopted five resolutions unanimously after brief discussions on them.

The privilege motion regarding nomination of a house business advisory committee, whose notice was given by leader of the opposition Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan and Syed Khalid Ahmed, was disposed of as the mover did not press for it after PPP parliamentary party leader Nisar Ahmad Khuhro assured him that the matter could be sorted out with mutual consultation.

The adjournment motion of Heer Ismail Soho and Naila Munir regarding stoppage of funds of 249 development schemes was ruled out of order by the speaker after it was opposed by senior minister Nisar Khuhro.

A resolution tabled jointly by Irum Azeem Farooqui of the MQM and Khairunnisa Mughal of the PPP after a brief discussion recommended that the Sindh government approach the federal government to hold a transparent census in view of their reservations about house count within three days.

It said the census authority should have representation of all the provinces and the modalities to conduct census should be evolved with the consent of representatives of the provinces.

The resolution whose notice was given by Nusrat Seher Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional asked the provincial government to take steps to provide an air ambulance in divisional headquarters in the province to provide relief to the public in case of an emergency to save lives of victims of tragedies and accidents.

Another resolution whose notice was given by Naila Munir of the MQM paid tribute to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy on her documentary A girl in the River — The price of Forgiveness, nominated for an Oscar. The documentary highlights the evil and controversial practice of ‘honour’ killing in Pakistan.

By a resolution the house recommended to the government to launch awareness campaigns and help put this abuse of human rights to an end.

The resolution of Syed Khalid Ahmad of the MQM recommended that the government of Sindh establish fire stations having an adequate number of fire tenders with allied facilities in all districts.

The resolution whose notice was given by Kamran Akhtar had drawn the attention of the house towards the so-called VIP culture / protocol, causing immense hardship to the people.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2016