HYDERABAD: Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro has said it is less likely that local government elections will be held before the general elections as the constitutional time for the latter draws closer.

Addressing a press conference at the Circuit House on Tuesday, Khuhro said the Sindh Assembly would have to legislate on the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, 2012, to make it an Act.

“We can't hold elections on an ordinance but only on an Act of the assembly as is the norm in democracy and parliamentary system,” he explained.

The speaker said that the ordinance would be brought in the Sindh Assembly where the MPAs with certain amendments would enact it into an Act.

“There is a lot of room for amendment to the ordinance which is not a final document for the LG system,” he added.

According to Khuhro, the coalition government in Sindh was under pressure to devise a formula for paving way for the implementation of an LG system in the province.

He equated the ordinance with the formula whose final shape would be given by the Sindh Assembly in the form of an Act.

The speaker rejected the allegations being levelled by the former allies in the Sindh government and the nationalist leaders that the local government system being envisaged by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would result in the division of Sindh in future.

“The new system is a continuation of the 1979 LG system,” he said recalling that the same metropolitan corporations and municipal committees were being reintroduced.

He defended the planned creation of 5 metropolitan corporations in Sindh up from only one which existed under the 1979 system premising the increase on the growth in population in the respective districts.

About the strike call given by Sindh Bachao Committee, the PPP leader said that it is not wise to force the businesses shut and bring traffic to a grinding halt. “The nationalist leaders are our brothers. We were together in many struggles. They should instead give their recommendations for the changes in the ordinance when it comes to the assembly,” he added.

The local leaders of the PPP including Aftab Khanzada, Roshan Solangi, Amanullah Siyal and others were also present on the occasion.