THE tussle over the implementation of the local government system in Karachi, which is, in the opinion of many, the country’s most chaotic and poorly managed city, appears to have attained ridiculous proportions. From the provincial government appropriating areas of crucial civic work, including waste management and garbage disposal, to the continuing incarceration of Mayor Waseem Akhtar, there seems to be little appreciation in the corridors of power for the immediate task at hand: sorting out the city’s devastated civic and infrastructural affairs. To the contrary, it appears that active measures are being taken to further complicate the situation; the latest move came on Wednesday when, following a request from the Sindh government, the bank accounts of all municipalities were frozen. The institutions affected range from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to the union councils, which means that at all levels of local governance, work will be severely impeded and salaries suspended. The Sindh government says that this was done because of the realisation that the entire LG system had changed in 2010. No doubt, a rationalisation process may indeed be required; nevertheless, it is odd that appreciating this reality has come years after the change, and that the administration’s response to the challenge was then initiated through the extreme step of freezing accounts with no contingency plan in place.

Such a dog-in-the-manger attitude shown by the party that has run Sindh for many years is inexplicable. In any case, it is not the PPP’s job to manage civic affairs — that is the mandate of the local government. Great hopes were pinned on the recently inducted chief minister, who took charge with lofty promises of change and re-energising the system; unfortunately, for all his good intentions, the city remains a mess. One wonders if the motives behind the current move regarding the implementation of the LG system, dominated by the MQM, are political. If so, Karachi is being held hostage for the basest of reasons.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016