KARACHI, July 10: Senior leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Tuesday decided to activate their core committee to craft a consensus local government law for the entire province.

The meeting of the two coalition parties took place at the Chief Minister’s House, where the leaders also reviewed the progress made so far on the new LG system in the province.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Minister Syed Khurshid Shah and Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani represented the PPP, while Federal Minister Dr Farooq Sattar, Sindh Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed and former Hyderabad nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil attended the meeting on behalf of the MQM.

After the meeting, Mr Durrani said that the two sides exchanged views concerning legal proposals about the local government system. “Our allies are serious about the future local government system in Sindh,” he said, adding that the meeting decided that the core committee of the PPP and the MQM would meet on a daily basis after July 12 to sort out the obstacles and finalise the system.

The PPP and MQM were holding several rounds of meetings to craft a consensus LG law in Sindh before holding next local government election. However, both sides stuck to their positions as the MQM wanted more powers for the local government as envisaged in the now abolished SLGO, 2001. However, the PPP preferred the SLGO, 1979 which envisaged comparatively less powers.