HYDERABAD: Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani had reconstituted HDA governing body on Feb 26. The new body appeared to be without the city mayor.

The notification in this respect was issued by LG secretary Khalid Hyder Shah.

The governing body is headed by LG minister as chairman. The other members are HDA director general (secretary), PMA from Latifabad Jabbar Khan, the LG secretary, Hyderabad commissioner, public health engineering (PHE) chief engineer, Zahid Hussain Lashari (technocrat) and a representative of civil society (Saghir Qureshi, who is PPP’s Hyderabad district president).

In the past when the governing body used to be headed by district nazim, the governing body headed by MQM’s Kanwar Naveed Jameel did not have the MPA from Qasimabad who then happened to be from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
The LG minister did not include any MNA from Hyderabad and Latifabad though the HDA primarily controls these constituencies, besides Qasimabad provincial constituency.

Successive mayors have remained part of the HDA governing body as the mayor is primarily responsible for the municipal services in collaboration with the HDA and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

The previous governing bodies had the representation of the Hyderabad garrison through the station commander concerned but the newly constituted body does not have such a representation.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2019