HYDERABAD, Feb 20: A communication by DCO Mohammad Hussain Syed, disagreeing with the ruling of the district council convener that the presence of EDOs and other district government officials during council sessions was mandatory, came under fire by the council members on Tuesday.

Convener Zafar Rajput, who adjourned the session till Wednesday, distributed copies of the letter among members, which came in response to his communication dated December 21, 2006.

“It is informed that according to law/by laws, mandatory presence of government's officers (EDOs) in each and every meeting of district council is not required”, read the letter.

Zahida Memon said that DCO was never available in office and members tried to locate him for bringing their problems to his notice, adding that house was the only forum where they could air grievances in the presence of the officers.

Sajida Baloch called for suspending agenda to discuss this matter of urgent nature. She was supported by Abbas Khan, who called for adjourning house for tomorrow with directives to the DCO to attend the session.

Yamin Soomro contended that no one could bypass the council which was supreme body of the district and the DCO did not refer to any provision of Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2001 which did not make presence of officers mandatory.

Advocate Ishtiaq Ahmed said the DCO must have erred in writing the letter because he did not invoke any section of the SLGO or perhaps he wrote it without going through the contents of the ordinance.

It was only Q. Mohammad Hakim, who supported the DCO's contention while referring to sections 28(d) and 28(c) that respectively require the DCO to coordinate in flow of information and supply information to monitoring committees.

He tried to make members feel that they are crossing their limit by seeking compulsory presence of officers in each session, saying that expectations always lead to disgruntlement and that officers would do whatever they were required under the SLGO.

The chair reminded Hakim that the ruling had come in response to repeated protests of the members and he was part of it. “Expectations involve friendship and the house is not meeting requirement of any friendship. Being custodian of the house, I am committed to bring every mater to your notice. The council is let down by the DCO”, he said.

Mehboob Abro also joined the band-wagon and criticised the DCO by saying that it was always representative meeting of people of the district. He called for passing a resolution for transfer of the DCO.

When he tried to raise the issue of commission and corruption, his remarks were expunged by the chair after its attention was drawn on a point of order by Rashid Khan and Hakim that Abro was getting irrelevant, for the council could not seek transfer or posting of any officer as per the SLGO.

The house opposed nomination of three members in its monitoring committees but approved delegation of powers of drawing and disbursing officers in the council secretary for expenses of Rs50,000.

It passed a resolution moved by Zahida Memon regarding sewerage and drainage issues of Talpur Colony, Tandojam, and Aliabad after the chair said that Wapda would be asked to resolve electricity issue of her area.

The TPO of Latifabad, Ayub Durrani, representing the Hyderabad DPO, told the house in response to questions of Abdullah Shoro that SHOs and TPOs had been directed not to allow tractors with ploughs in the city and violators should be fined heavily. He said, so far no case was lodged.

ISRA CONVOCATION: The Isra University is holding convocation 2007 to be presided over by the governor of Sindh and patron of the university on February 24.