HYDERABAD, Oct 30: The members of the Zila Council, Hyderabad, on Tuesday demanded of the government to do away with all those bottlenecks which were creating hurdles in the smooth running of the devolution plan, abolish all Zakat committees established in the province recently and set up new ones comprising people of integrity and good character in the jurisdictions of union councils.

The members also called upon the government to provide offices, furniture, and other facilities to Nazims in order to facilitate them to deliver the goods to their electorate.

The members were of the unanimous opinion that the government should be approached to obtain clarification pertaining to the problems, concerning union councils and their solution should also be sought.

These demands formed part of four resolutions presented by four members of the Zila council and were adopted with a majority vote after a heated debate on the second day of the second meeting of the council.

The session was adjourned by the convener sine die, deferring other items of the agenda for the next session.

Electricity remained suspended for more than an hour in the Zila Council hall and the convener had to begin the proceedings of the meeting during the suspension of the power supply.

There were complaints by council members against some executive district officers (EDOs), who, they claimed neither respected the mandate of the people given to elected Nazims nor gave them patient hearing in case they approached them with some problem.

The session restarted 70 minutes later and the resolutions were presented by Hussain Bux Hussaini, Qazi Abdul Qadeer, Rana Mahmood Ali Khan, and Syed Gulam Raza Shah.

These pertained to the reconstitution of Zakat committees comprising those people whose integrity was beyond any doubt, and about decentralization of powers upto the Nazim level, and provision of offices and furniture to them in their union councils.

Majority of the members aired their views on the resolutions and passed it with an overwhelming majority.

In his resolution, Mr Hussaini claimed that in the past the constitution of Zakat committee had taken place in a clandestine manner and without the people concerned being notified.

He said that the newly-inducted committee members always ignored deserving people who were entitled for Zakat and were on the list, and added that the procedure must come to an end now.

He said that after being properly verified, the chairman of the Zakat committee should be elected in mosques and no one deserving Zakat should be ignored.

He claimed that new committees must be set up under the supervision of Nazims and keeping in view the population of the union councils.

Qazi Abdul Qadeer’s resolution was much the same.

The members, however, emphasized that more funds should be allocated and the role of those people, monitoring the systems of Bait-ul-Maal and the Zakat committees should be defined clearly.

In view of the proceedings of Monday’s meeting about which news were published in the newspapers describing the Zila Council meeting as “a fish market”, the members felt ashamed and conceded that they did not conduct themselves in a civilized manner.

Dr Ayaz Arain said that the members would have to uphold the sanctity of the chair and give due respect to its ruling and avoid violating rules and regulations.

He added that every member must wait for his turn if he wanted to speak with the permission of the convener.

The members claimed that in the absence of proper rules and regulations and lack of clarity in the devolution plan, which was replete with ambiguities, they failed to convince their voters who approached them for solution of their problems.

Rana Mahmood Ali Khan presented a resolution claiming that the aims and objectives of the new system were not being achieved because the powers were yet to be devolved.

He added that the members of the council were being confronted with innumerable issues and they did not know from where they should seek clarification.

He maintained that if these problems were not resolved then this system was bound to fail.

The resolution demanded that the new system should be enforced in the same spirit in which it was promised and the members should be given offices, furniture and facilities. The government should remove all the bottlenecks hampering the smooth running of the system.

Ms Shahnaz Baqai said that women members also wanted to speak and present their problems so they should be allocated some time in which only they exclusively would speak. The house witnessed a rumpus-like situation when Ms Shahnaz Baqai tried to speak.

Q. M. Hakim, who stood on a point of order, countered her saying that she should only speak on the contents of the resolution. He was, however, silent when other members spoke on issues other than the resolution. Engineer Samira Akhlaque said that women members should also be provided offices and conveyance in their respective talukas.

Farheen Mughal called for banning intemperate use of language in the council and for a proper code of conduct.

The members took serious notice of the fact that certain EDOs were not present in the meeting, and when the law officer pointed out that if members needed any clarification they should send their queries to his office.

TALL CLAIM: The executive district officer for Health, Dr Qadir Bux Memon claimed on Tuesday that only 22 cases of polio were detected in Sindh this year against 100 cases which were discovered last year.