KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani on Monday said that agitation by the opposition parties on city roads was not the right way to amend the local government law as floor of the house should be used for advancing their reservations on the law.

He was replying to queries of reporters at a press conference regarding the ongoing protest of the Jamaat-i-Islami outside the Sindh Assembly building against the controversial LG law.

The information minister reiterated that the options were open to further improve and amend the Sindh Local Government Act 2021, adding that the provincial assembly was the right forum to achieve this objective.

He recalled that opposition lawmakers in the provincial assembly had been twice given the opportunity to present their amendments to the local government law but on both the occasions, they opted to stage a walkout and raise the issue outside the assembly.

He was of the view that the main opposition political parties in the province — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Grand Democratic Alliance — knew very well that they would have to face a crushing defeat if the local government elections were held in the province in next four months.

He said that these opposition parties had been using different undue delaying tactics to avoid the “humiliating defeat” in the forthcoming LG polls.

He reiterated that the provincial government was ready to hold the local government elections in the province as the same would be held soon after the Election Commission of Pakistan completed the exercise of fresh delimitation of constituencies.

Mr Ghani, who also holds the portfolio of labour, said the ruling PTI had been completely wiped out in Sindh as it was sheer nonsense to make a claim that it would form the next government in the province.

He said the MQM-P particularly wanted that the local government polls were not held in Sindh, as the party knew that it would meet the same fate as the PTI did in the province.

He said the incompetent rulers in the country even didn’t know it was the federal government, and not the province, which conducted the population census as the provincial administration in Sindh had merely rendered assistance to complete the national exercise.

He recalled that the Sindh government’s request to share the data of census with the deputy commissioners in districts of the province to resolve any objection was not accepted by the centre.

He also recalled that the federal government did not accept the suggestion of Sindh to use the Benazir Income Support Programme data to dispense the aid package during the lockdown as instead needy people were made to stand in long queues, as the unsafe method so adopted furthered the alarming spread of coronavirus in the country.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022