KARACHI, July 30: The local government elections in Sindh would be conducted by the civil administration. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Sindh cabinet which met here on Saturday with Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim in the chair.

The participants of the meeting reviewed the law and order situation and expressed satisfaction overall arrangements made for the holding of local bodies polls. This was stated by Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Information Salahuddin Haider while briefing newsmen about the cabinet decisions.

Responding to a question, Mr Haider said the matter for holding of elections under army supervision was not taken into consideration as the cabinet has full confidence in the civil machinery for holding the elections in a free, fair and transparent manner.

The cabinet gave an approval for installing another water recycling plant of 16 to 20 mgd water daily. An agreement has already been signed with an Austrian firm to initiate work on the plant. The recycled water would be supplied for consumption in industrial units in SITE area.

Mr Haider said the work on the plant would start soon and would be initiated under the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). The cabinet took serious notice of the report that military land transferred to the district government Hyderabad for a residential complex was misused and the then district Nazism allowed construction of a CNG filling station and private residences.

The cabinet ordered cancellation of permit for the CNG station and to conduct a probe against the then district Nazim for abuse of power. Regarding issue of disposal of Railway land in Karachi by Pakistan Railways which were property of the Sindh government, the cabinet endorsed the decision of the federal government that 40 per cent of proceeds of this land should go to the Sindh government, the adviser said.

The adviser pointed out that the DHA had reclaimed over 240 acres along the shore which was the property of the Sindh government. The DHA maintained that this land had been acquired from Port Qasim Authority. The cabinet decided to renegotiate the matter with DHA and efforts would be made to get the price of the land at market value.

In view of the expanding work of the Sindh Planning and Development Department, it was decided that consultants would also be appointed. Secretary of Information Fasihuddin Khan and Director of Information SM Iqbal were present.