KARACHI, Aug 20: Shahida Farooq, an environmental activist, has said that if ‘Municipal Emergency’ had been enforced since the passing of its bill by Sindh Assembly seven years back, Karachi would not have experienced the kind of problems as they emerged today after heavy rains.

In a statement issued on Sunday, she said that the idea of municipal emergency was floated from the platform of the Shahida Welfare Trust by carrying out certain amendments in the SLGO 1979. The underlying idea, she said, was to make the councils responsible to impose emergency in such a situation when discharging of municipal functions would have become difficult.

She said that during the period of emergency, the council could suspend normal working of any or all its departments and cancel leave of its employees. The basic objective was to provide procedure where different local councils could make optimal use of resources (human and financial) for betterment of the basic civic amenities. She said that the provincial assembly passed the Municipal Emergency bill in June 1999.

The purpose of declaring emergency at a particular time and place was recognition of grave circumstances, like the recent heavy rains, which ought to be handled urgently. The basic theme of municipal emergency was to draw the attention of civic bodies towards the appalling conditions of civic services. However, she said the state of affairs in various institutions catering to the civic needs of the general public was unsatisfactory.

She said, it was high time that the municipal emergency be imposed at all levels not only in Karachi but throughout the country and resources be pooled to provide relief to rain-hit population.—APP